Author: Kieran Setiya
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400888476
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 197
Book Description
Philosophical wisdom and practical advice for overcoming the problems of middle age How can you reconcile yourself with the lives you will never lead, with possibilities foreclosed, and with nostalgia for lost youth? How can you accept the failings of the past, the sense of futility in the tasks that consume the present, and the prospect of death that blights the future? In this self-help book with a difference, Kieran Setiya confronts the inevitable challenges of adulthood and middle age, showing how philosophy can help you thrive. You will learn why missing out might be a good thing, how options are overrated, and when you should be glad you made a mistake. You will be introduced to philosophical consolations for mortality. And you will learn what it would mean to live in the present, how it could solve your midlife crisis, and why meditation helps. Ranging from Aristotle, Schopenhauer, and John Stuart Mill to Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir, as well as drawing on Setiya’s own experience, Midlife combines imaginative ideas, surprising insights, and practical advice. Writing with wisdom and wit, Setiya makes a wry but passionate case for philosophy as a guide to life.
Midlife
Author: Kieran Setiya
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400888476
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 197
Book Description
Philosophical wisdom and practical advice for overcoming the problems of middle age How can you reconcile yourself with the lives you will never lead, with possibilities foreclosed, and with nostalgia for lost youth? How can you accept the failings of the past, the sense of futility in the tasks that consume the present, and the prospect of death that blights the future? In this self-help book with a difference, Kieran Setiya confronts the inevitable challenges of adulthood and middle age, showing how philosophy can help you thrive. You will learn why missing out might be a good thing, how options are overrated, and when you should be glad you made a mistake. You will be introduced to philosophical consolations for mortality. And you will learn what it would mean to live in the present, how it could solve your midlife crisis, and why meditation helps. Ranging from Aristotle, Schopenhauer, and John Stuart Mill to Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir, as well as drawing on Setiya’s own experience, Midlife combines imaginative ideas, surprising insights, and practical advice. Writing with wisdom and wit, Setiya makes a wry but passionate case for philosophy as a guide to life.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400888476
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 197
Book Description
Philosophical wisdom and practical advice for overcoming the problems of middle age How can you reconcile yourself with the lives you will never lead, with possibilities foreclosed, and with nostalgia for lost youth? How can you accept the failings of the past, the sense of futility in the tasks that consume the present, and the prospect of death that blights the future? In this self-help book with a difference, Kieran Setiya confronts the inevitable challenges of adulthood and middle age, showing how philosophy can help you thrive. You will learn why missing out might be a good thing, how options are overrated, and when you should be glad you made a mistake. You will be introduced to philosophical consolations for mortality. And you will learn what it would mean to live in the present, how it could solve your midlife crisis, and why meditation helps. Ranging from Aristotle, Schopenhauer, and John Stuart Mill to Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir, as well as drawing on Setiya’s own experience, Midlife combines imaginative ideas, surprising insights, and practical advice. Writing with wisdom and wit, Setiya makes a wry but passionate case for philosophy as a guide to life.
It's NOT a Midlife Crisis It's an Opportunity
Author: Andrew G. Marshall
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0995540322
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 364
Book Description
It's good to take stock from time to time but at forty or fifty-something you can find that you're dissatisfied and bored. The temptation is to take a wrecking ball to your life but that risks alienating your partner and your children – without necessarily ending up any happier. Just gritting your teeth, doesn't work either – anyway, you've already tried that! Fortunately, there's another way to become fulfilled and lead the life that's right for you (rather than what your parents, society or anybody else thinks). If you're fed up with life, questioning whether you should stay married or thinking you might be better off with someone else, marital therapist Andrew G. Marshall has a radical idea to help you move from the first half to the second of your life without messing everything up: it's not a midlife crisis, it's an opportunity. He explains in part one: The three central questions you need to answer (and why everybody else is distracting themselves and avoiding facing them). How to put what's happening now into the context of your whole life journey. How to avoid the tempting short-cuts that cause more heartache in the long term. Why if you pass this midlife test everything is up from here. Why you're not in the wrong. If it's your partner who has turned grumpy, critical and blames you for everything, you will be feeling alone and full of despair. Don't worry, in part two of this compassionate book, Andrew G. Marshall explains: A whole new vocabulary for discussing the midlife crisis without putting your partner's back up. What's really going on in your partner's head. What causes depression and how to help. Five killer replies to the blocks that stops you talking properly about your marriage. Why you're not in the wrong. Together you will learn three new skills that will either change your marriage into the connected, fulfilling and loving relationship of which you've always dreamed or help you separate amicably and be great coparents together.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0995540322
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 364
Book Description
It's good to take stock from time to time but at forty or fifty-something you can find that you're dissatisfied and bored. The temptation is to take a wrecking ball to your life but that risks alienating your partner and your children – without necessarily ending up any happier. Just gritting your teeth, doesn't work either – anyway, you've already tried that! Fortunately, there's another way to become fulfilled and lead the life that's right for you (rather than what your parents, society or anybody else thinks). If you're fed up with life, questioning whether you should stay married or thinking you might be better off with someone else, marital therapist Andrew G. Marshall has a radical idea to help you move from the first half to the second of your life without messing everything up: it's not a midlife crisis, it's an opportunity. He explains in part one: The three central questions you need to answer (and why everybody else is distracting themselves and avoiding facing them). How to put what's happening now into the context of your whole life journey. How to avoid the tempting short-cuts that cause more heartache in the long term. Why if you pass this midlife test everything is up from here. Why you're not in the wrong. If it's your partner who has turned grumpy, critical and blames you for everything, you will be feeling alone and full of despair. Don't worry, in part two of this compassionate book, Andrew G. Marshall explains: A whole new vocabulary for discussing the midlife crisis without putting your partner's back up. What's really going on in your partner's head. What causes depression and how to help. Five killer replies to the blocks that stops you talking properly about your marriage. Why you're not in the wrong. Together you will learn three new skills that will either change your marriage into the connected, fulfilling and loving relationship of which you've always dreamed or help you separate amicably and be great coparents together.
A Personal Tao
Author: Casey Kochmer
Publisher: Amberjack Software LLC
ISBN: 0976967405
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 115
Book Description
Science is factReligion is faithMagic is perceptionKnow these boundaries to discover what lies beyond.What is the Tao? Don't ask. The Tao cannot be described, yet a person will express it simply by being alive. It is possible to list definitions from the dictionary, from various documents. Each definition: a set of words, echoes of reality. A common mistake is to think of the Tao as a state of mind, hence it can be touched through words. Tao is a state of existence and nonexistence, it's mental, spiritual, and physical states all blending together. Living to Tao will never be summarized in the mathematics of word play. Poetry, philosophy, literature all offer only helpful guidance but never the actual Tao. A simple analogy would be swimming under the water. It's possible to read about snorkeling or diving, but until diving under the water, feeling the pressure, experience seeing undersea life, having lungs squeeze outside-in yet feeling inside-out from pushing down as deeply as you can dive, only to resurface to feel a sudden gasp of wet air... all in 60 seconds of a run on sentence: it's an idea approximated by a reader but only grasped by the experiencer. When this last line was read by a friend of mine, she said: but when you snorkel the pressure doesnt feel like that. Surprised, I asked her if she ever dove to about 25 feet while snorkeling, she said no, at which moment we both realized how personal the experience becomes due to differences in the path taken. This example touches why discovering the Tao is a personal living experience.Why learn the Tao? Knowing of the Tao technically should not change anything. But it does, it's the same difference as: knowing yourself really shouldn't change who you are. Yet it does. It's the difference between, being yourself or the reflection in the mirror. When the answer is we are both, more and less..... The Tao is every contradiction, every truth and each of the standard circular Yoda Yoga mystical answer...leaving us with holding flowing water in a single hand. Try to grasp it, and its gone, yet our hands are wet. So accept the fact, we are each a contradiction, this is the truth being described when these mystical answers are bantered about: using one impossible statement to prove another impossible statement. The key for writing and reading this document comes down to a single reason: Words are never about the Tao, words are always about us. Sometimes to understand ourselves, we need to write aloud a personal truth as its human nature and hence the Tao to do so. The point becomes this: the Tao, itself isn't a path -- the path is living. Being human, living includes the experience of expression and introspection through words and speaking out. This is about discovering personal truth and how to flow with oneself. Yet learning is always a process of sharing. Reflections in this document become one possible outline out of many to help myself be... myself, while giving others a chance to comment and add their own personal style to the overall document. This then becomes a circular process between, author, reader and everyone involved to help define and discover a personal Tao.So....Move, tumble, stumble, spin poetry, swirl, dance: all this is about the Tao and us.
Publisher: Amberjack Software LLC
ISBN: 0976967405
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 115
Book Description
Science is factReligion is faithMagic is perceptionKnow these boundaries to discover what lies beyond.What is the Tao? Don't ask. The Tao cannot be described, yet a person will express it simply by being alive. It is possible to list definitions from the dictionary, from various documents. Each definition: a set of words, echoes of reality. A common mistake is to think of the Tao as a state of mind, hence it can be touched through words. Tao is a state of existence and nonexistence, it's mental, spiritual, and physical states all blending together. Living to Tao will never be summarized in the mathematics of word play. Poetry, philosophy, literature all offer only helpful guidance but never the actual Tao. A simple analogy would be swimming under the water. It's possible to read about snorkeling or diving, but until diving under the water, feeling the pressure, experience seeing undersea life, having lungs squeeze outside-in yet feeling inside-out from pushing down as deeply as you can dive, only to resurface to feel a sudden gasp of wet air... all in 60 seconds of a run on sentence: it's an idea approximated by a reader but only grasped by the experiencer. When this last line was read by a friend of mine, she said: but when you snorkel the pressure doesnt feel like that. Surprised, I asked her if she ever dove to about 25 feet while snorkeling, she said no, at which moment we both realized how personal the experience becomes due to differences in the path taken. This example touches why discovering the Tao is a personal living experience.Why learn the Tao? Knowing of the Tao technically should not change anything. But it does, it's the same difference as: knowing yourself really shouldn't change who you are. Yet it does. It's the difference between, being yourself or the reflection in the mirror. When the answer is we are both, more and less..... The Tao is every contradiction, every truth and each of the standard circular Yoda Yoga mystical answer...leaving us with holding flowing water in a single hand. Try to grasp it, and its gone, yet our hands are wet. So accept the fact, we are each a contradiction, this is the truth being described when these mystical answers are bantered about: using one impossible statement to prove another impossible statement. The key for writing and reading this document comes down to a single reason: Words are never about the Tao, words are always about us. Sometimes to understand ourselves, we need to write aloud a personal truth as its human nature and hence the Tao to do so. The point becomes this: the Tao, itself isn't a path -- the path is living. Being human, living includes the experience of expression and introspection through words and speaking out. This is about discovering personal truth and how to flow with oneself. Yet learning is always a process of sharing. Reflections in this document become one possible outline out of many to help myself be... myself, while giving others a chance to comment and add their own personal style to the overall document. This then becomes a circular process between, author, reader and everyone involved to help define and discover a personal Tao.So....Move, tumble, stumble, spin poetry, swirl, dance: all this is about the Tao and us.
Midmen
Author: Steve Ochs
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781499781861
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
Eighty percent of modern, middle-aged men are having what is known as a midlife crisis. These men represent the highest concentration of wealth, the longest terms of unemployment and (drum roll please) the highest rate of suicide. They also represent over four million inappropriate gold stud earrings, seventeen billion individual hair transplants and eight thousand miles of hairy muffin top. These are the MIDMEN. MIDMEN: The Modern Man's Guide to Surviving Midlife Crisis is more than just an informative self help book for a growing, if rapidly balding, generation. It is strong medicine dissolved into a spoonful of beer that men can easily digest. However, men are notoriously averse to buying self-help books and, because publishers know that, there isn't much out there. But they are the primary readers of humor books. Eureka. MIDMEN is a 50/50 blend of Louis CK and Dr. Phil. It's half Men are From Mars Women Are From Venus and half Tucker Max; kind of a Fifty Shades of John Grey. MIDMEN keeps the reader laughing as it spoon-feeds him genuine survival information. Covering areas as diverse as health, finance, family and death, MIDMEN leads its MIDMAN reader through an insidious series of sections and chapters that surreptitiously reinforce his sense of well being as he faces life's second half. MIDMEN: The Modern Man's Guide to Surviving Midlife Crisis is a frank - okay downright rude - collection of facts, quizzes and anecdotes that offers readers a way to identify what really matters in life and get it scheduled in by sharing wisdom like: "Who is a MIDMAN? He's the guy with eyes that can't stop looking at younger women who can't stop not giving a sh*t." "The average middle-aged couple has sex once a week, twice if they also sleep with each other." ..". the question, 'Are you pre-menstrual?' is famously punishable by death." "If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough." Men have felt this way about boobs for years, now we need to apply it to our dreams.
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781499781861
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
Eighty percent of modern, middle-aged men are having what is known as a midlife crisis. These men represent the highest concentration of wealth, the longest terms of unemployment and (drum roll please) the highest rate of suicide. They also represent over four million inappropriate gold stud earrings, seventeen billion individual hair transplants and eight thousand miles of hairy muffin top. These are the MIDMEN. MIDMEN: The Modern Man's Guide to Surviving Midlife Crisis is more than just an informative self help book for a growing, if rapidly balding, generation. It is strong medicine dissolved into a spoonful of beer that men can easily digest. However, men are notoriously averse to buying self-help books and, because publishers know that, there isn't much out there. But they are the primary readers of humor books. Eureka. MIDMEN is a 50/50 blend of Louis CK and Dr. Phil. It's half Men are From Mars Women Are From Venus and half Tucker Max; kind of a Fifty Shades of John Grey. MIDMEN keeps the reader laughing as it spoon-feeds him genuine survival information. Covering areas as diverse as health, finance, family and death, MIDMEN leads its MIDMAN reader through an insidious series of sections and chapters that surreptitiously reinforce his sense of well being as he faces life's second half. MIDMEN: The Modern Man's Guide to Surviving Midlife Crisis is a frank - okay downright rude - collection of facts, quizzes and anecdotes that offers readers a way to identify what really matters in life and get it scheduled in by sharing wisdom like: "Who is a MIDMAN? He's the guy with eyes that can't stop looking at younger women who can't stop not giving a sh*t." "The average middle-aged couple has sex once a week, twice if they also sleep with each other." ..". the question, 'Are you pre-menstrual?' is famously punishable by death." "If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough." Men have felt this way about boobs for years, now we need to apply it to our dreams.
Cancer Is a Bitch
Author: Gail Konop Baker
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1458779157
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
Gail Konop Baker was a runner, yoga practitioner, doctor's wife, and lifelong subscriber to Prevention magazine. But right before her forty-sixth birthday, she heard the words that would forever change her life: Just to be safe, I think we should biopsy. It was the beginning of her yearlong battle with breast cancer and its fallout - a battle that would upstage any midlife crisis she'd worried was waiting in the wings. Cancer Is a Bitch is her raw, moving, and funny account of juggling midlife, motherhood, and marriage with a rogue boob - and, ultimately, triumphing. It will, as author Lolly Winston said, ''crack [you] up one minute, then bring [you] to tears the next.''
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1458779157
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
Gail Konop Baker was a runner, yoga practitioner, doctor's wife, and lifelong subscriber to Prevention magazine. But right before her forty-sixth birthday, she heard the words that would forever change her life: Just to be safe, I think we should biopsy. It was the beginning of her yearlong battle with breast cancer and its fallout - a battle that would upstage any midlife crisis she'd worried was waiting in the wings. Cancer Is a Bitch is her raw, moving, and funny account of juggling midlife, motherhood, and marriage with a rogue boob - and, ultimately, triumphing. It will, as author Lolly Winston said, ''crack [you] up one minute, then bring [you] to tears the next.''
Overcoming the Mom-Life Crisis
Author: Nina Restieri
Publisher: Post Hill Press
ISBN: 1642937223
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 202
Book Description
From the founder of momAgenda comes the ultimate guide to navigating the mom-life crisis, with a simple process for putting your own long-forgotten needs back on the to-do list. Nina Restieri was a wife, a mom of four young kids, and a successful entrepreneur. Despite having what most people would consider “it all,” happiness eluded her. She beat herself up daily for not being grateful. But as she looked around, she realized most of the moms she knew shared that same sense of sadness, stress, and overwhelm, all while working hard to keep up the “perfect mom” appearance. Desperate for a change and tired of crying behind a locked bathroom door, Nina embarked upon a ten-year journey that led her to unexpected places—including a pole dancing studio—for peace and solace. After digging deep and facing some painful truths, Nina emerged knowing she deserved more than she was giving herself and figured out that a mom can take care of her kids, and take care of herself. Like a permission slip for mothers to love themselves as much as they do their children, this book chronicles Nina’s journey to putting her mom-life crisis behind her—forever—and offers up a roadmap so you can too.
Publisher: Post Hill Press
ISBN: 1642937223
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 202
Book Description
From the founder of momAgenda comes the ultimate guide to navigating the mom-life crisis, with a simple process for putting your own long-forgotten needs back on the to-do list. Nina Restieri was a wife, a mom of four young kids, and a successful entrepreneur. Despite having what most people would consider “it all,” happiness eluded her. She beat herself up daily for not being grateful. But as she looked around, she realized most of the moms she knew shared that same sense of sadness, stress, and overwhelm, all while working hard to keep up the “perfect mom” appearance. Desperate for a change and tired of crying behind a locked bathroom door, Nina embarked upon a ten-year journey that led her to unexpected places—including a pole dancing studio—for peace and solace. After digging deep and facing some painful truths, Nina emerged knowing she deserved more than she was giving herself and figured out that a mom can take care of her kids, and take care of herself. Like a permission slip for mothers to love themselves as much as they do their children, this book chronicles Nina’s journey to putting her mom-life crisis behind her—forever—and offers up a roadmap so you can too.
Stop Physician Burnout
Author: Dike Drummond
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781937660345
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 204
Book Description
Physician Burnout to Your Ideal Practice is possible using this first comprehensive stress-reduction resource for practicing physicians. You can be a modern physician and have an extraordinary life when you learn and practice the tools in this book. Use this book to STOP the downward spiral of physician burnout with field-tested, doctor-approved techniques discovered through thousands of hours of one-on-one coaching with physicians facing career threatening burnout.Dr. Dike Drummond MD, CEO and founder of TheHappyMD.com will show you burnout's symptoms, effects, and complications; burnout's pathophysiology and four main causes; how to bypass the invisible doctor "Mind Trash" that gets in the way of your recovery; 14 proven burnout prevention techniques and FREE access to an additional 15 techniques on our Power Tools web page - a private resource library; and a step-by-step method to build a more Ideal Practice and a more balanced life whether or not you are suffering from burnout at the moment.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781937660345
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 204
Book Description
Physician Burnout to Your Ideal Practice is possible using this first comprehensive stress-reduction resource for practicing physicians. You can be a modern physician and have an extraordinary life when you learn and practice the tools in this book. Use this book to STOP the downward spiral of physician burnout with field-tested, doctor-approved techniques discovered through thousands of hours of one-on-one coaching with physicians facing career threatening burnout.Dr. Dike Drummond MD, CEO and founder of TheHappyMD.com will show you burnout's symptoms, effects, and complications; burnout's pathophysiology and four main causes; how to bypass the invisible doctor "Mind Trash" that gets in the way of your recovery; 14 proven burnout prevention techniques and FREE access to an additional 15 techniques on our Power Tools web page - a private resource library; and a step-by-step method to build a more Ideal Practice and a more balanced life whether or not you are suffering from burnout at the moment.
Hidden Blessings
Author: Jett Psaris
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780998293509
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
At Midlife Your Story is Only Half Told. Many people "die" in their 50s and just aren't buried until their 80s. That's because they did not take the full journey available to them at midlife. The whole point of midlife is to allow - even force - a re-evaluation of who you are and the life you have created, giving you your very best chance to discover, realize, and actualize your deepest spiritual nature in everyday life.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780998293509
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
At Midlife Your Story is Only Half Told. Many people "die" in their 50s and just aren't buried until their 80s. That's because they did not take the full journey available to them at midlife. The whole point of midlife is to allow - even force - a re-evaluation of who you are and the life you have created, giving you your very best chance to discover, realize, and actualize your deepest spiritual nature in everyday life.
Broken Dreams
Author: Mark Jackson
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1789143950
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
The midlife crisis has become a cliché in modern society. Since the mid-twentieth century, the term has been used to explain infidelity in middle-aged men, disillusionment with personal achievements, the pain and sadness associated with separation and divorce, and the fear of approaching death. This book provides a meticulously researched account of the social and cultural conditions in which middle-aged men and women began to reevaluate their hopes and dreams, reassess their relationships, and seek new forms of identity and fresh pathways to self-satisfaction. Drawing on a rich seam of literary, medical, media, and cinematic sources, as well as personal accounts, Broken Dreams explores how the crises of middle-aged men and women were shaped by increased life expectancy, changing family structures, shifting patterns of work, and the rise of individualism.
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1789143950
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
The midlife crisis has become a cliché in modern society. Since the mid-twentieth century, the term has been used to explain infidelity in middle-aged men, disillusionment with personal achievements, the pain and sadness associated with separation and divorce, and the fear of approaching death. This book provides a meticulously researched account of the social and cultural conditions in which middle-aged men and women began to reevaluate their hopes and dreams, reassess their relationships, and seek new forms of identity and fresh pathways to self-satisfaction. Drawing on a rich seam of literary, medical, media, and cinematic sources, as well as personal accounts, Broken Dreams explores how the crises of middle-aged men and women were shaped by increased life expectancy, changing family structures, shifting patterns of work, and the rise of individualism.
The Poison Squad
Author: Deborah Blum
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0525560289
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 370
Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book The inspiration for PBS's AMERICAN EXPERIENCE film The Poison Squad. From Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times-bestselling author Deborah Blum, the dramatic true story of how food was made safe in the United States and the heroes, led by the inimitable Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, who fought for change By the end of nineteenth century, food was dangerous. Lethal, even. "Milk" might contain formaldehyde, most often used to embalm corpses. Decaying meat was preserved with both salicylic acid, a pharmaceutical chemical, and borax, a compound first identified 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 "embalmed milk" every year. Citizens--activists, journalists, scientists, and women's groups--began agitating for change. But even as 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 agriculture department, 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 fascinating Dr. Wiley campaigning indefatigably for food safety and consumer protection. Together with a gallant cast, including the muckraking reporter Upton Sinclair, whose fiction revealed the horrific truth about the Chicago stockyards; Fannie Farmer, then the most famous cookbook author in the country; and Henry J. Heinz, one of the few food producers who actively advocated for pure food, Dr. Wiley changed history. When the landmark 1906 Food and Drug Act was finally passed, it was known across the land, as "Dr. Wiley's Law." 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.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0525560289
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 370
Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book The inspiration for PBS's AMERICAN EXPERIENCE film The Poison Squad. From Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times-bestselling author Deborah Blum, the dramatic true story of how food was made safe in the United States and the heroes, led by the inimitable Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, who fought for change By the end of nineteenth century, food was dangerous. Lethal, even. "Milk" might contain formaldehyde, most often used to embalm corpses. Decaying meat was preserved with both salicylic acid, a pharmaceutical chemical, and borax, a compound first identified 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 "embalmed milk" every year. Citizens--activists, journalists, scientists, and women's groups--began agitating for change. But even as 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 agriculture department, 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 fascinating Dr. Wiley campaigning indefatigably for food safety and consumer protection. Together with a gallant cast, including the muckraking reporter Upton Sinclair, whose fiction revealed the horrific truth about the Chicago stockyards; Fannie Farmer, then the most famous cookbook author in the country; and Henry J. Heinz, one of the few food producers who actively advocated for pure food, Dr. Wiley changed history. When the landmark 1906 Food and Drug Act was finally passed, it was known across the land, as "Dr. Wiley's Law." 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.