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 the nineteenth century, food in America was increasingly dangerous—lethal, even. Milk and meat were routinely preserved with formaldehyde; 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. Food manufacturers had rushed to embrace the rise of industrial chemistry and were knowingly selling harmful products, putting profit before the health of their customers. Citizens began agitating for change. 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 investigating food and drink fraud, even conducting shocking 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 Dr. Wiley campaigning tirelessly for food safety and consumer protection. 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.