Search results for ""author jonathan rees""

A fascinating examination of the controversial work of Harvey Wiley, the founder of the pure food movement and an early crusader against the use of additives and preservatives in food.Though trained as a medical doctor, chemist Harvey Wiley spent most of his professional life advocating for "pure food"—food free of both adulterants and preservatives. A strong proponent of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, still the basis of food safety legislation in the United States, Wiley gained fame for what became known as the Poison Squad experiments—a series of tests in which, to learn more about the effects of various chemicals on the human body, Wiley's own employees at the Department of Agriculture agreed to consume food mixed with significant amounts of various additives, including borax, saltpeter, copper sulfate, sulfuric acid, and formaldehyde. One hundred years later, Wiley's influence lives on in many of our current popular ideas about food: that the wrong food can kill you; that the right food can extend your life; that additives are unnatural; and that unnatural food is unhealthy food. Eating—the process of taking something external in the world and putting it inside of you—has always been an intimate act, but it was Harvey Wiley who first turned it into a matter of life or death.In The Chemistry of Fear, Jonathan Rees examines Wiley's many—and varied—conflicts and clashes over food safety, including the adulteration of honey and the addition of caffeine to Coca-Cola, formaldehyde to milk, and alum to baking powder. Although Wiley is often depicted as an unwavering champion of the consumer's interest, Rees argues that his critics rightfully questioned some of his motivations, as well as the conclusions that he drew from his most important scientific work. And although Wiley's fame and popularity gave him enormous influence, Rees reveals that his impact on what Americans eat depends more upon fear than it does upon the quality of his research. Exploring in detail the battles Wiley picked over the way various foods and drinks were made and marketed, The Chemistry of Fear touches upon every stage of his career as a pure food advocate. From his initial work in Washington researching food adulteration, through the long interval at the end of his life when he worked for Good Housekeeping, Wiley often wrote about the people who prevented him from making the pure food law as effective as he thought it should have been. This engaging book will interest anyone who's curious about the pitfalls that eaters faced at the turn of the twentieth century.

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How increased access to ice—decades before refrigeration—transformed American life.During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Americans depended upon ice to stay cool and to keep their perishable foods fresh. Jonathan Rees tells the fascinating story of how people got ice before mechanical refrigeration came to the household. Drawing on newspapers, trade journals, and household advice books, Before the Refrigerator explains how Americans built a complex system to harvest, store, and transport ice to everyone who wanted it, even the very poor.Rees traces the evolution of the natural ice industry from its mechanization in the 1880s through its gradual collapse, which started after World War I. Meatpackers began experimenting with ice refrigeration to ship their products as early as the 1860s. Starting around 1890, large, bulky ice machines the size of small houses appeared on the scene, becoming an important source for the American ice supply. As ice machines shrunk, more people had access to better ice for a wide variety of purposes. By the early twentieth century, Rees writes, ice had become an essential tool for preserving perishable foods of all kinds, transforming what most people ate and drank every day. Reviewing all the inventions that made the ice industry possible and the way they worked together to prevent ice from melting, Rees demonstrates how technological systems can operate without a central controlling force. Before the Refrigerator is ideal for history of technology classes, food studies classes, or anyone interested in what daily life in the United States was like between 1880 and 1930.

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Today’s workplace is fast-paced, highly complex, and sometimes even life-threatening. Yet it is possible to thrive in the ‘pressure cooker’ of modern work life. We all have the right to enjoy rather than just endure work. In the unpredictability of even the most challenging environments, the route to success and fulfilment at work is to build our resilience. This ground-breaking book provides a highly effective toolkit that will empower you to survive, thrive and flourish in the dynamic and fast-changing context of blue-light services. Discover how to: Be ready for the unexpected, feel calm and confident under pressure and avoid burnout Reduce stress and anxiety by understanding the essential components of a resilient work life Evaluate your own resilience factor with the Workplace Resilience Instrument “Jonathan Rees shows us through bright examples and actionable exercises that we, too, can thrive under pressure. Our own resilient behaviors can be modeled to match the situations we face. Although reading about what makes people resilient can be insightful, Jonathan’s battery of self-assessment tools provides the reader with specific feedback to be more effective and view adverse situations as opportunities more so than danger.” Dr. Larry Mallak, Western Michigan University, Author of 'The Workplace Resilience Instrument (WRI)' "This book represents the next stage of Jonathan’s work and provides any senior leader in the public sector with an opportunity to learn and refresh the practical skills that will help them in these challenging roles. Whether you are a senior leader in policing, the NHS or elsewhere in the public sector I would recommend that you read this book and adopt its principles. I promise that it will help you to survive and thrive in the pressure cooker." Chief Superintendent Ian Wylie, Vice president, Police Superintendents’ Association.

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