Deborah BlumReseñas

This was a very detailed account of Dr. Harvey Wiley's career as a food chemist in the Department of Agriculture. Over several decades he researched the food industry, then tested consumer products. He recommended and fought for reform. This, and his efforts to inform the public made him an enemy of some unsavory businesses and quite unpopular with some of his colleagues.
Some of the descriptions of spoiled or adulterated food that the author included are so disgusting that I had to stop reading for a bit and let my stomach settle.... and I am not known for having a weak stomach! While it s important for readers to visualize the poor and most likely dangerous the quality of food was at the end of the 19th century, readers may want to skim some of grosser passages.

Did you know that lead has recently been found in some cinnamon spice products? You should have been around before , and even after 1906, when anything that could be added to food was added, and nothing was ever inspected. People, and especially children, died after consuming bad milk, candy (legally laced with arsenic as a decoration), and all kinds of additives.
I found the pictures of old, white men helpful as I tried to keep track of the good guys (chemists and muckraking journalists) vs the baddies, (food processors, corrupt politicians).
Made me appreciate the fight it took to even pass safe food laws, never mind enforcing them. Of course, even today, the fight continues.
I appreciate the good fight the original heroes fought.
I also have a new respect for Good Housekeeping Magazine, an early food safety champion.

Fascinating look at the pioneers of forensic medicine

I definitely lean on the skeptical side, so much so that if I hadn't stumbled across this because I read Blum's book on poisons, it is very unlikely I would have read it. Still, that would have been my loss. If you are going to reject something, you should know what kind of reasons you have for doing so. I am a great admirer of Wallace and spiritualism definitely undermined his career, as well as throwing a wrench into the friendship between great magician Harry Houdini , decidedly anti-spirtualism, and Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle, a beleiver if ever there was one. Seeing that serious attempts were made to scientifically investigate such phenomenon makes it easier to understand how such things could have happened to intelligent and serious minded individuals like Doyle and Wallace.

really enjoyed this. The information about the poisoners didn't shock me as much as learning what the government and companies concerned acceptable practice back then

RATING: 3.5
“The Poisoner’s Handbook” is somehow both deeply interesting and detailed yet also strangely repetitive and too detailed. So I really did enjoy reading this (part on audiobook and part in print); the early years of forensic science and poison exploration seem downright WILD at times. I was fascinated by the various stories of killers, government agents, and scientists and all the ways they worked to achieve their ends, both good and evil. I also really like how Blum told these real life stories with a fictional voice, narrating like it was a murder mystery.

On the downside, each chapter (focusing on a different poison) felt like they had the same format. At times, I thought I had accidentally rewound the book because something sounded familiar. There are also times when the topic becomes focused on law, legislation, and government topics; I understand the need to include some of it but honestly parts of it were SO DRY and I don’t think added very much.

All in all, I have a deeper appreciation for forensic science now, and a couple of the stories Blum told have stuck in my head.

This book includes some really heroic tales of the lives of scientists and municipal employees.

Warning depictions of animal cruelty

I had difficulty staying interested in this book,it was quite taxing to finish unfortunately. The most frustrating aspect of was the endless amounts of historical vignettes found throughout each chapter. Sometimes it was effective, sometimes creating a quasi emotional connection with the victims. On the other end it was often clunky and unnecessary. Did I really need a recap of the great depression in order to understand the chemical composition of Thalium? No. Or the decor of the medical examiner's office? No. I did however enjoy the more technical passages describing the actual chemistry behind the various poisons and how they were discovered. The lives of Norris and Gettler were also fascinating. Overall I wish the focus was more on chemistry and forensic science,everything else could have been left out.

4.75 stars

A truly fascinating look at the history of poisons in America. I learned a lot, which I appreciate in a book, and the writing is not dry like a textbook. One of my favorite reads so far this year!

Note: There is a bit of profanity, and the descriptions of how poisons affect the human body may be too grisly for some readers.

Man, while there are still many issues with the modern US food industry, I am SO beyond grateful that I wasn't born anywhere prior to the FDA becoming a thing because the descriptions of things from in "food" was horrifying

I really enjoyed Deborah Blum's [b:The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York|7054123|The Poisoner's Handbook Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York|Deborah Blum|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442933592l/7054123._SY75_.jpg|7305202] about poison in the Jazz Age, and this prequel, so-to-speak, of the turn of the century push for food purity was fascinating. Many popular non-fiction books read like an afterthought of stitched together essays masquerading as a book, but Blum's journalism background really shines. The narrative flows nicely from one section to the next, painting a complete picture of an America held captive to corporate interests and party politics on one side and activists, suffragettes, socialists and scientists on the other. This may feel a little on the nose for modern politics, but Blum never lets a parallel slip out, instead sticking strictly to history. She does so largely by focusing on the story of Dr. Wiley, the titular "one chemist," who forms the also titular, "poison squad" -- a randomized controlled trial to determine the effects of preservatives on food.

Perhaps my biggest complaints about the books are the flip side of its virtues. With a singular narrative focus, Blum loses the opportunities to draw parallels and also address how the FDA and food regulation has evolved since FDR. Wiley's campaign against preservatives like saccharin and benzoate is addressed with complete credulity analogously to his campaigns against formaldehyde and copper salts in food. Blum never even mentions that both are FDA-approved now (a tangent: as a professional biochemical geneticist, I use benzoate all the time as a nitrogen scavenger because it binds to the amino acid glycine to form hippuric acid, which is easily excreted in the urine. When I first started interpreting urine organic acid analyses, I turned to my mentor confused -- why do so many samples have hippurate in them? I assumed that some hippuric acid might be naturally occurring. Instead, my mentor handed me a diet soda bottle, clearly labeled "contained potassium benzoate to preserve flavor."). She also didn't address the modern "pure food" movement or how that may be different with a more robust FDA who does approve the chemical additives...

A very interesting read about the beginnings of forensic science in New York city. My only quibble would be that the way some of the cases were covered left me feeling like I needed to know more about them, their coverage in this book might not be as in depth as they could be. Perhaps not as satisfying as I may have liked. Also, the descriptions of autopsies and the use of animals in experimental science might be upsetting to some.

That said, the science of the various poisons and how they were used and misused by people was very interesting to read. It's also good to know that bureaucracy was just as rampant in the 1920's and 1930's as it is now.

This book is a few different things. It is more or less organized by certain early 20th-century true crime events, but it also sort of tells the story of the first Manhattan forensic pathologist at Bellevue, Charles Norris and a chemist name Alexander Gettler who worked with him, it is sort of a lay survey of forensic toxicology, and it is has asides about various aspects of contemporary New York and US history e.g., What was the Black Hand society?

I am a retired pathologist and this description should have indicated a book that was written for me, but the problems are these: The book’s various aspects are jumbled and disorganized. There is repetition. The crime descriptions sort of fade away, the topic changes, and I wondered what happened. The book is written in an informal manner, and this informality seems to be an attempt to highlight some gruesome aspect of the descriptions. The author’s sources are largely newspaper articles and Norris and Gettler’s research papers. The papers are summarized using various lay terms that are sometimes inaccurate. So, I was frequently irritated, but there is a great deal of interesting information here and I think many readers might be able to get more out of it than I could.

The author uses colorful names for chemical mixtures, dark, gelatinous ooze,he then steamed his ooze, slurry of tissue, a bubbling mess.
Pathological descriptions have been changed and are misleading, organs are described as appearing chewed, kidneys are dribbled with blood. Jargon terms are used for a reason and it is usually best to define them rather than swapping them out.
The old weight measure of a grain is used without explanation.
Findings at a graveyard are referred to as carnage.
The author uses the old term ptomaine which was a popular theory at the time but is now known to be fallacious and shouldn’t be used without explanation.

I've never been into audiobooks, but I recently discovered I can listen to nonfiction while I work on simple things quite happily. This one was interesting and seemed well-documented, although I admit I didn't pay it the close attention I would have in print.

I found myself fascinated by the chapters covering Harvey Wiley's early investigations and efforts. Once the book became about the political machinations after the law was passed, i became less interested. Business applying secret pressure to get regulations eased is a well trod tale.½

The choppy organization made it difficult to follow this history of the development of forensic chemistry. Chapters are named for the particular deadly substance they center on, but the actual progress of the discussion seems to be a chronological mishmash of various political, scientific, and legal events. Yes, great advances were made by the efforts of a few dedicated scientists, and many riveting stories of murders are also included. An important additional subject, especially in the final few chapters, was the rise of consumer protection advocacy. All interesting and important stuff, but not easy to read.

Listened to the audio book. I'm so thankful for the work and dedication of Wiley to fight for safe food and accurate labeling. It is appalling what used to be acceptable to do to food. Very eye opening.

Written well but way too much about poisonings (murderous and accidental) and the subsequent investigations and trials in 20’s and 30’s NYC. A chapter or two would have been enough for me.

Fascinating little book covering a history of toxicology, true crime accounts and important contributions surrounding certain poison's chemical make-up and destructive properties.
The following elements are discussed: Chloroform, Wood alchohol, (3) Cyanides, Arsenic, Mercury, Carbon Monoxide, Methyl Alcohol, Radium, Ethyl Alcohol, and Thallium (and one last surprise bonus element in the epilogue!) I enjoyed the book's contents, but I'm not that heavy into chemistry.½

This was my long car-ride audiobook for a few months, and I loved it. It was completely fascinating. Blum mixed science, history, politics, crime, and Prohibition into a wonderful narrative on how forensic toxicology was born.

Fabulous.

The narrator was great, too.

I jumped the gun in reading this ahead of a group read, but I'm happy to report that I thoroughly enjoyed it. The topic lends itself to lots of stories that add color to the bare facts surrounding the tireless work of the two men who brought validity to the use of toxicology in crime solving.

The narrator was first rate for a non-fiction book. She moved along so briskly that at no point was I tempted to increase the speed of the narraction (something I occasionally do with non-fiction) yet not so fast that I was ever lost.

Deborah Blum's work as author of "The Poison Squad" ranks in my mind right up there with Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." Blum explores the history of food processing in this country and the passion and struggles of chemists who campaigned for improvements to food processing, the development and involvement of the FDA, and the pushback from lobbies to keep the status quo - claiming no injuries started by old methods of food processing. The "ingredients" added to spices or passed off as spices was truly alarming to read. This book will open your eyes and perhaps for many of you - compel action in healthy eating.

Wonderful history of forensic medicine and of our Nations' history as well.

Extremely well-written and engaging. But the last two chapter were a bit unnecessary. Should have stopped at Harlow's death. Just an epilogue or two appendixes after Harlow's death would have sufficed.

there are no important lessons here, just fascinating stories