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 | Swindled: |
ADDITIONAL REVIEWS: "Sobering (yet entertaining) . . . Not much has changed in the basic logic of food production since [eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England], Wilson observes--save for the gradual effort to research the threats that adulteration poses, and the still slower progress toward the effective regulation of food."--Phoebe Connelly, BookForum "An entertaining history of food adulteration, rather than a the-sky-is-falling warning."--Whitney Hallberg, ForeWord Magazine "[R]iveting. . . . If ever a book could convince you that the only food worth eating is that which you have scrupulously shopped for in reputable local shops and cooked yourself from scratch, it is this one."--Val Hennessy, Mail on Sunday "Food writer Bee Wilson brings a feisty, learned hand to this history of food swindles while coaxing dark comedy from a greed so biblically powerful it could kill. The adulterer's cabinet was full of ingenious horrors to bamboozle the public, and the quick-buck schemes are terrible and fascinating. Squaring the frauds with their greater economic and political contexts is where Wilson hits an artful stride. It is bracing to witness her social conscience as she explains how the shift from agricultural to industrial society dimmed our familiarity with traditional foods, how swindling sunders the trust of citizens, why the poor are disproportionately affected by swindles, and how the thievery is abetted by governments loath to intervene in the free market, for the laissez-faire state is on the lookout only when its revenues are jeopardized. Lest we feel distant from the wily 19th-century grocer, Wilson makes it gin clear that watering down, coloring up, bulking out, and plain poisoning are still with us, as are dyes, flavorings, and fortifiers--pettifogging, in a word, the same old deceit now legalized."--Peter Lewis, Barnes and Noble Review "From chemist Friedrich Accum exposing lead-tainted candies in 1820s London to ersatz wartime foods like acorn 'coffee, Swindled dines with gusto upon centuries of poisonous penny-pinching, profitable mass production and open fakery. The greatest narrative relish is saved for the wildly felonious 19th century, but Wilson's account of faked infant formula and adulterated lard haunting modern China's rapid industrialisation shows our Accums will always be busy."--Paul Collins, New Scientist ENDORSEMENTS: "Bee Wilson is a terrific writer who tells great stories, and her book could not be more timely given what's going on in the Chinese food industry today."--Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics and What to Eat "No other book tells the history of food adulteration in this way. Swindled is ambitious in its coverage and extremely well written."--Andrew F. Smith, editor of the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink File created: 9/23/2008 | |
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