The history of food production is possibly the most disgusting thing I've read, and that includes not only fictional horror and medical books. With no sanctions at the turn of the century, manufacturers were willing to use all sorts of untested methods to prolong the shelf life of their product. Meat that was turning was preserved with salicylic acid and borax. Milk was often cut with formaldehyde to keep it from spoiling. Countless poisoning cases were directly caused by chemicals added to food. No one at the time knew how dangerous these chemicals could be, and no one bothered to test them. Spice companies used floor sweepings instead of the real product. Wine was cut with vinegar. Flour was dangerously chemically bleached. Enter Dr. Harvey Wiley, a chemist determined to clean up the production of food. Wiley went toe-to-toe with manufacturers, the government, and his own bosses all in the name of protecting the public.
The Poison Squad chronicles Wiley's often tumultuous attempts to get standards passed on the safety of food. He was instrumental in the creation of the Pure Food and Drug Act and a crusader in wanting to let the public know what they were consuming. Chemically tainted food was often the bane of the lower classes and most often targeted the health of children, invalids, and the elderly. Wiley became determined to protect those who could not protect themselves, and his epic battle with his boss at the Department of Agriculture is a tale of one man passionately fighting for what he believed in, no matter the personal cost. With the help of muckrakers and the public, Wiley's "Poison Squad" became a widely read, fascinating study of just what chemicals can do to a person. This is also a story of the dangers of corporations trying to force the hand of the government to protect their costs. There are a few corporate heroes (the Heinz company, for one) and quite a few villains (Armour, Monstanto, etc.). You'll never look at food the same way again.
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Judging from multiple book lists I've seen, November is the month of memoirs. Something about Pilgrims and turkey dressing seems to inspire long nonfiction lists of reading about people writing about their lives. I went the nonfiction route, but not with memoirs. This month is all about some recent history nonfiction for me. The first book: Queens of the Conquest.
Indefatigable chronicler of English monarchy, Alison Weir turns her attention to the earliest medieval queens of the country. William the Conqueror's wife Matilda of Flanders, Matilda of Scotland, Adeliza of Louvain, Matilda of Boulogne, and the powerhouse Empress Maud are all given their due here. I have a soft spot for Maud, hated as she was in England. This was a woman who demanded her due and played with the boys, though unfortunately her personality and inability to navigate politics led to her being infamous rather than legendary. The irony is that Stephen, the king she ended up in a stalemate with, was just as politically blundering in different ways. It took his more politically astute wife Matilda of Boulogne working in his name to ever get anything accomplished. The fact remains that most of these women were formidable in their own right, though operating in a different set of gender rules and often dealing with some brutal men. Maud in particular took a beating by chronologists for her arrogant and masculine way of doing things, yet had she been a man she probably would have been judged no differently than many of the other implacable male rulers of the time. The truth often needs to be pried out of historical texts to understand these women, but Weir, as always, is up to the task. |
AuthorA librarian who likes to travel and experience life. CategoriesArchives
June 2022
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