Press enter after choosing selection

The Poison Squad : : one Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Blum, Deborah, 1954- Book - 2018 921 Wiley, Harvey, Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / United States / 19th Century / Blum, Deborah, Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / United States / 19th Century / Blum, Deborah 3 On Shelf No requests on this item Community Rating: 2.8 out of 5

Cover image for The poison squad : : one chemist's single-minded crusade for food safety at the turn of the twentieth century

Sign in to request

Locations
Call Number: 921 Wiley, Harvey, Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / United States / 19th Century / Blum, Deborah, Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / United States / 19th Century / Blum, Deborah
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length Call Number Checkout Length Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor
4-week checkout
921 Wiley, Harvey 4-week checkout On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books
4-week checkout
Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / United States / 19th Century / Blum, Deborah 4-week checkout On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books
4-week checkout
Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / United States / 19th Century / Blum, Deborah 4-week checkout On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books
4-week checkout
Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / United States / 19th Century / Blum, Deborah 4-week checkout Due 05-16-2024

"I wonder what's in it" -- A chemical wilderness -- Cheated, fooled, and bamboozled -- The beef court -- What's in it? -- Only the brave -- Lessons in food poisoning -- The yellow chemist -- The jungle -- The poison trust -- Of ketchup and corn syrup -- Excuses for everything -- Of whiskey and soda -- The love microbe -- The adulteration snake -- The history of a crime.
Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley set out to ensure food safety. He selected food tasters to test various food additives and preservatives, letting them know that the substances could be harmful or deadly. The tasters were recognized for their courage, and became known as the poison squad.
"By the end of the nineteenth century, food in America was increasingly dangerous--lethal, even. Milk and meat were routinely preserved with formaldehyde, a practice based on the embalming of corpses. Beer and wine were preserved with salicylic acid, a pharmaceutical chemical; canned vegetables were greened-up by copper sulphate, a toxic metallic salt; rancid butter was made edible with borax, best known as a cleaning product. This was not by accident; food manufacturers had rushed to embrace the rise of industrial chemistry and were knowingly selling harmful products. Unchecked by government regulation, basic safety, or even labelling requirements, they put profit before the health of their customers. By some estimates, in New York City alone, thousands of children were killed by adulterated and chemically 'improved' milk. Citizens--activists, journalists, scientists, and wornen's groups--began agitating for change. But although protective measures were enacted in Europe, American corporations blocked even modest regulations. Then in 1883, Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, a chemistry professor from Purdue University, was named chief chemist of the United States Department of Agriculture, and the agency began methodically investigating food and drink fraud, even conducting shocking human tests on groups of young men who came to be known as the Poison Squad. Over the next thirty years, a titanic struggle took place, with the courageous and inimitable Dr. Wiley campaigning tirelessly for food safety and consumer protection. Together with a gallant cast, including the muckraking author Upton Sinclair, who fought to reveal the horrific truth about the Chicago stockyards; Fannie Farmer, then the most famous cookbook author in the country; and Henry Heinz, one of the few food producers who actively advocated for pure food, Dr. Wiley changed history. When the landmark 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act was finally passed, it was known across the land as 'Dr. Wiley's Law.' Deborah Blum brings to life this timeless and hugely satisfying David and Goliath tale with righteous verve and style, driving home the moral imperative of confronting corporate greed and government corruption with a bracing clarity, which speaks resoundingly to the enormous social and political challenges we face today."--Dust jacket.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review
CHOICE Review
Booklist Review
Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Table of Contents
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Way too long submitted by duckmeister on June 14, 2021, 11:25am This book could have been half the length...or an article. There were bursts of interesting, but it was repetitive and I read it to put myself to sleep :( This was more the biography of Harvey Wiley than about the Poison Squad and Pure Food and Drug Act.

Cover image for The poison squad : : one chemist's single-minded crusade for food safety at the turn of the twentieth century


PUBLISHED
New York : Penguin Press, 2018.
Year Published: 2018
Description: 330 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm
Language: English
Format: Book

ISBN/STANDARD NUMBER
9781594205149
1594205140

SUBJECTS
Wiley, Harvey Washington, -- 1844-1930.
United States. -- Bureau of Chemistry -- Officials and employees -- Biography.
Food inspectors -- Biography.
Chemists -- Biography.
Food additives -- History.
Food -- Government policy.
Food -- Safety regulations.