Book Review: The Poison Eaters

During my winter holiday break, I began working through my pile of history books. I had found The Poison Eaters: Fighting Danger and Fraud in Our Food and Drugs by Gail Jarrow in a giveaway pile at my local library and decided to give the book a new home. I was familiar with the story of the poison eaters, young men who volunteered in a study to assess how food preservatives altered the human body, after listening to the episode “A Pure Food Father and His Poison Squad” for the podcast Stuff You Missed in History Class, which was released in 2011. The two questions I needed to answer were 1) What else was there to this story? and 2) Why was this book “weeded” from the library collection?

The picture-filled hardcover book used posters, advertisements, and photographs to illustrate ten chapters and substantial appendixes. The first chapter introduced the concept of mass produced food preservatives in the 19^th century, chapters two through seven covered the life of Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley who ran food preservative studies and supported the passage of the Food and Drugs Act, and chapters eight through ten covered the aftermath of his work. Included at the end of the book were a list of chemicals tested in Wiley’s studies, a glossary, a timeline beginning with Wiley’s birth and ending with the publication of the book, and sources for further learning plus a bibliography. This book was thoroughly researched by a seasoned professional, as Jarrow had previously won awards for writing nonfiction.

To briefly summarize the contents of the book, the American Industrial Revolution caused major changes in how food was produced in the United States as people changed their occupation from subsistence farmer to factory worker. Food was now created on an assembly line but could rapidly spoil before the advent of refrigeration. With no rules for labeling the contents of the food, manufacturers put dangerous preservatives in their products or sold a different product under a false label. Dr. Wiley led the charge conducting studies and lobbying Congress, but much of his work was undone by the Department of Agriculture and several presidential administrations. He eventually quit government work to become the editor of Good Housekeeping magazine. Shorter anecdotes in the book referenced women who died of radium poisoning from painting watches in a factory, babies affected by thalidomide and similar drugs, and other horror stories from lax food and drug regulations.

For anyone deeply interested in the history leading up to the creation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or fascinated with all things 19^th century through early 20^th century, this is an excellent source. However, the book does have some structural issues that may have led to its “weeding”, namely the pacing or allocation of chapters to different material, and the unclear intended age demographic. As you may have noticed from my description of chapter contents, the book is about sixty percent biography, giving a comprehensive look at the life of Dr. Wiley. If the book had eight chapters of biography plus beginning and end chapters on other issues related to food and drug regulations, the book would have felt perfectly paced. Conversely, if the book dedicated three chapters to Dr. Wiley and seven chapters to other issues, the episodic format would have worked. However, by ending Dr. Wiley’s story in the seventh chapter, the end of the book seemed to drag even if the material presented was compelling.

As for the intended age demographic, I believe the book is aimed towards grades five through eight, or ages ten through thirteen. The binding of the book has a hard cover, bright colors, and nearly square shape, which initially made me think the book was intended for a slightly younger demographic, perhaps first through fifth grade, or ages six through ten. I applaud Jarrow for never talking down to her young audience, as she used scientific and political terms in her writing while providing a glossary. She also employed complex sentences and included quotes from the subjects of the book. However, some of these paragraphs were complex and read like academic papers written by college students. I experienced a moment of intellectual whiplash when I read a fairly in-depth analysis on the influence of early feminism and the temperance movement on food regulations, then turned the page to see an explanation on how bills become laws that would not look out of place as a poster in an elementary school classroom. Both sections were expertly written and designed, but the intended audiences did not match.

The final note on this book, and a potential reason for the “weeding”, was that its contents were grotesque in several places. The realistic descriptions of what ended up in processed food and fraudulent drugs, along with pictures of victims, would deeply disturb some readers. I am not advocating for the censorship of history, and the pull quote on the back cover literally describing how the sausage was made served as a warning for what was inside, but I can imagine an excited child eagerly showing the picture of a victim who had chemical burns on her eyes to an unsuspecting parent or teacher and getting an adverse reaction.

The Poison Eaters is listed at $18.99 on its back cover, and twenty-two copies are currently in circulation at my interlibrary loan system, C/W MARS; this glut of copies could be yet another reason for its exile from the stacks. I have not listened to the audiobook version, but one narrated by experienced voice actor Suzanne Toren is currently available. I would be interested to know how the images appearing in the book are conveyed through audio. If you are an academically inclined middle schooler or an adult who loves sophisticated picture books, this might be a good read for you, provided you have a strong stomach. Otherwise, you might want to steer clear of this book.

Abby Epplett’s Rating System

Experience: 7/10

Accessibility: 7/10

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