Deborah Blum Books

By the end of the nineteenth century, food in America was increasingly dangerous--lethal, even. Milk and meat were routinely preserved with formaldehyde, a practice based on the embalming of corpses. 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. 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 adulterated and chemically 'improved' milk. Citizens--activists, journalists, scientists, and women's groups--began agitating for change. But although 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 United States Department of Agriculture, 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 inimitable Dr. Wiley campaigning tirelessly for food safety and consumer protection. Together with a gallant cast, including the muckraking author Upton Sinclair, who fought to reveal the horrific truth about the Chicago stockyards; Fannie Farmer, then the most famous cookbook author in the country; and Henry Heinz, one of the few food producers who actively advocated for pure food, Dr. Wiley changed history. 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

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Ghost Hunters chronicles the dramatic story of New York City's first forensic scientists to describe Jazz Age poisoning cases, including a family's inexplicable balding, Barnum and Bailey's Blue Man and the crumbling bones of factory workers. Reprint.

Geistererscheinungen, Kommunikation mit Toten und ein Leben nach dem Tod berühren unsere tiefsten Ängste und Hoffnungen. Deborah Blums Werk behandelt die letzten Fragen des menschlichen Daseins und wird kaum einen Leser unberührt lassen. Mit der erzählerischen Begabung einer herausragenden Schriftstellerin schildert die Pulitzer-Preisträgerin das Leben mutiger Forscher, insbesondere den berühmten William James, Professor für Psychiatrie an der Harvard University. Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts versuchte James, mithilfe wissenschaftlicher Methoden Licht in Geistererscheinungen und parapsychologische Phänomene zu bringen. Als „Geister-Jäger“ riskierte er den Spott und die Feindschaft seiner Kollegen und überschritt oft die Grenzen seiner eigenen Komfortzone, um das Unbekannte zu erkunden. Dieses Buch hat nichts mit Sciencefiction oder Klischees à la „Ghostbusters“ zu tun. Blums Bericht aus der Dämmerzone zwischen Diesseits und Jenseits ist so wahrhaftig wie eine gute Wissenschaftsreportage und spannender als jede „Akte-X“-Folge. Es ist ein fesselndes Forschungsprojekt, das sowohl als genialer Wissenschaftskrimi als auch als spannendes Sachbuch überzeugt.

Deborah Blum schildert das Leben des exzentrischen und umstrittenen Wissenschaftlers Harry Harlow, der mit seinen legendären, jedoch grausamen Affenexperimenten die Kraft der Mutterliebe bewies und so den Grundstein für die Bindungsforschung legte. Von 1932 bis 1974 führten Harlow und seine Kolleg*innen die grausamen Experimente an der Universität von Wisconsin durch. Ihre Entdeckungen revolutionierten die Kinderpsychologie und -erziehung, die bis in die Mitte der 1950er Jahre durch Strenge und Distanz geprägt war.