Context for Conflict: The Iran War

/ Lauren / Leave a comment

I took four college courses in Russian, and “Ya ne panimayu pa-Russki” – translated, “I don’t understand Russian” – is about all I have to show for it. It’s not surprising. It was the late 2000s, and the U.S. was neither in active competition nor actively antagonistic toward Russia. Enrollment in Russian was so low at my university that my professor, a Ukrainian by birth, padded out most of his semesters by teaching basic Spanish courses. Even the writers of the textbook seemed apathetic; they included vocabulary referring to Soviet-era stores, even though the Soviet state had dissolved 15 years prior to the edition’s publication.

For anyone who can remember all those case declensions, Russian language media must be a fascinating read these days.

Russia and Ukraine have been at war since 2014, with February 24, 2022 marking the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and a new phase of the war. It’s not the only war in the headlines. Israel has been at war with Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023. And now, with the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei mere days ago on February 28, it appears that the U.S. and Israel are actively at war with Iran. I can’t say what could or should happen in any of these conflicts. I am a terrible student of history and I’m even worse at geopolitics. However, I am a librarian who can present you with works by experts to contextualize these conflicts, and I can find narratives by reporters and memoirists who are documenting their experiences as they happen. From there, you can read and draw your own conclusions.

I can’t do justice to these three conflicts in one blog post, so I’m going to break this down into parts, starting with today’s biggest headline dominator: the Iran War. If you know of an informative resource that’s not on the list, please feel free to leave a comment so other readers can find it!

Iran: A Modern History by Abbas Amanat (2017)

A comprehensive treatment of Iran’s history written by a top scholar. From the publisher: “Amanat combines chronological and thematic approaches, exploring events with lasting implications for modern Iran and the world. Drawing on diverse historical scholarship and emphasizing the twentieth century, he addresses debates about Iran’s culture and politics. Political history is the driving narrative force, given impetus by Amanat’s decades of research and study. He layers the book with discussions of literature, music, and the arts; ideology and religion; economy and society; and cultural identity and heritage.”

A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind by Michael Axworthy (2008)

If you’re looking for a quicker read, try this book by another excellent Iran historian. From the publisher: “Although frequently vilified, Iran is a nation of great intellectual variety and depth, and one of the oldest continuing civilizations in the world. Its political impact has been tremendous, not only on its neighbors in the Middle East but also throughout the world. From the time of the prophet Zoroaster, to the powerful ancient Persian Empires, to the revolution of 1979, the hostage crisis, and the current standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Michael Axworthy vividly narrates the nation’s rich history.”

America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present by John Ghazvinian (2021)

From the publisher: “In this rich, fascinating history, John Ghazvinian traces the complex story of the relations between these two nations back to the Persian Empire of the eighteenth century—the subject of great admiration by Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams—and an America seen by Iranians as an ideal to emulate for their own government. Drawing on years of archival research both in the United States and Iran—including access to Iranian government archives rarely available to Western scholars—the Iranian-born, Oxford-educated historian… makes clear where, how, and when it all went wrong. America and Iran shows why two countries that once had such heartfelt admiration for each other became such committed enemies—and why it didn’t have to turn out this way.”

The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations by Ervand Abrahamian (2013)

From the publisher: “In this authoritative new history of the coup and its aftermath, noted Iran scholar Ervand Abrahamian uncovers little-known documents that challenge conventional interpretations and sheds new light on how the American role in the coup influenced diplomatic relations between the two countries, past and present. Drawing from the hitherto closed archives of British Petroleum, the Foreign Office, and the US State Department, as well as from Iranian memoirs and published interviews, Abrahamian’s riveting account of this key historical event will change America’s understanding of a crucial turning point in modern United States-Iranian relations.”

All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer (2003)

Kinzer is a former journalist who knows how to craft a compelling and factual story. From the publisher: “This national bestseller brings to life the 1953 CIA coup in Iran that ousted the country’s elected prime minister, ushered in a quarter-century of brutal rule under the Shah, and stimulated the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and anti-Americanism in the Middle East.”

Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion and Collective Memory in the Middle East by Kim Ghattas (2020)

A fresh perspective on Iran’s place in the Middle East, from a Beirut-based journalist. From the publisher: “Kim Ghattas seamlessly weaves together history, geopolitics, and culture to deliver a gripping read of the largely unexplored story of the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, born from the sparks of the 1979 Iranian revolution and fueled by American policy.”

The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran by Roy Mottahedeh (1985)

From the publisher: “Drawn from the first-hand accounts of eyewitnesses, Roy Mottahedeh’s absorbing tale of Islam and Politics in revolutionary Iran is widely regarded as one of the best records of that turbulent time ever written.” Forty years after its initial publication, it’s still a great book to help one understand the 1979 revolution – especially the role that clerics and religion played.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (2003)

There’s little I can say that hasn’t already been said about Persepolis. This graphic novel is a personal account of a girl living through the revolution and the social restrictions that followed, then her young adulthood as she goes between Europe and Iran. It’s wonderfully accessible, even for those who aren’t usually graphic novel readers.

King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation by Scott Anderson (2025)

From the publisher: “From the author of the landmark bestseller Lawrence in Arabia comes a stunningly revelatory narrative history of the Iranian Revolution, one of the most momentous events in modern times. This groundbreaking work exposes the jaw-dropping stupidity of the American government and traces the rise of religious nationalism, offering essential insights into today’s global unrest.”

For the Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran’s Women-Led Uprising by Fatemeh Jamalpour and Nilo Tabrizy (2025)

From the publisher: “A moving exploration of the 2022 women-led protests in Iran, as told through the interwoven stories of two Iranian journalists.”

As a millennial whose male friends all wanted to be Anthony Bourdain, I have to give a shout-out to Bourdain’s CNN documentary travel show Parts Unknown. The late chef-turned-travel-host had a gift for finding connections with people across the world, and it was on display during his visit to Iran in 2014. You can watch it in season 4 episode 6. Parts Unknown is available through multiple free and paid streaming services.

And if you’re interested in Iran’s contributions to art, please check out our Islamic Art program on Tuesday, March 17. Wadsworth curator Hamid Hemat will take us on an art journey through the Islamic world, including Iran’s famous Nastaliq calligraphy. You’ll also get to try writing Persian script yourself! Register here: https://cheshirelibrary.libcal.com/event/15030026

The Reclusive Era

/ Susan O. / 1 Comment

Despite having numerous streaming channels, I was yet again faced with the dilemma of watching something dull but background noise (stand-up comedians, or weather disaster documentaries), watching something I loved for the 15th time, or something new that I would have to pay attention to, most of which I didn’t have time to finish. I wound up watching the documentary Grey Gardens, something that was on the far end of my to-be- watched list.

Grey Gardens is the story of Edith Beale, and her daughter, “Edie” Beale, who are, to be polite, a little bit batty. Hard recluses, they live in a 28-room, 100-year old mansion on Long Island, which is decrepit and at one point had been condemned by the town as being unlivable. Enter Jackie Kennedy Onassis – yes, that one – and her sister Lee, close relatives of the Beales, who throw money into the house and keep it from being torn down. Yet, when we meet the Beales, they basically live in one nasty room, Edith cooks from a burner next to her stained mattress, cats are seen pooping on the furniture, and they complain about the fleas.

Much of the documentary is spent with mother and daughter reminiscing about could have beens and should have beens –I could have been a singer … I could have been a dancer if you hadn’t … Sometimes they dream about what they should do – cut down the overgrown trees and make a garden. They don’t leave the house except to step onto the porch, where they can see to the gate and let people in, but only people with prior approval, like the handyman. They are both immature, lost in fantasy, and living in squalor without ever realizing it. Some people condemn the film as exploitive, while others consider it documentary of the purest form. The film made me think of of other, similar stories, that took place in the same era (Grey Gardens was filmed in 1975, with the mother born in 1895 and daughter born in 1917). This is not the only story with controlling mothers living in recluse with their daughters…

At the time, I was also reading the book Empty Mansions, a biography of heiress Huguette Clark, and the similarities were striking. Clark – heir to her father’s immense copper fortune – was an extreme recluse, not even attending her mother’s few social gatherings in their 5th-Avenue apartment where she herself lived. She had expensive homes she’d never been to, but that were still maintained and kept for tens of thousands of dollars a month, just in case. She didn’t set foot outside her apartment for fifty years, until she was forced into a hospital due to cancer, where she liked the room so much she stayed in it for 20 years (she lived to 105) – at cost, of course. While she was said to be sweet and generous over the phone or in letters, she saw no one face to face but certain doctors or nurses, and her personal aide. Those family members or schoolmates who had known her remembered a shy girl who didn’t speak much, but even into her 30’s carried dolls with matching outfits to high-society events with her mother (she owned more than 1200 dolls). There was something off in Huguette, but no one knew her well enough to understand exactly what. Huguette was born in 1906 and lived her whole life with her mother, who was shy but functioning, though she would throw social gatherings for friends’ children, but not the friends. Strange.

One of the saddest biographies I’ve ever read, The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll, is that of Dare Wright, the photographer who produced The Lonely Doll children’s book series. Wright was a highly talented artist, model, and photographer but was tightly controlled by her domineering mother. She frequently crossed familial boundaries – sleeping in her daughter’s bed, breaking up her engagement, not allowing her a separate life, until all Wright had was her dolls and her camera. It’s a difficult book to find, and you might not find it in a local library, but I urge you to read it if you can. Was Wright actually that loyal to her mother, or was she mentally reduced to submission by a controlling parent? Dare Wright was born in 1914 and lived much of her life in New York City. You can check out her famous Lonely Doll series here.

I think back to someone I knew who was born in that same era, 1905-1912, who lived on Long Island. Like many women of that era, in that location, she was concerned with appearances, society, never learned to drive, never wrote a check, never did anything but keep house, which was all a woman of that era was expected to do. Her only child, a daughter, was more than a little batty. Although they lived together for much of their lives, they did not become recluses until late in life, when poor health left the mother unable to walk well, or to deal with the daughter who had physical and mental issues of her own.

Is it just a coincidence that these women all lived in the same geographic area, were born in a 10-year window, led isolated lives, lived with their mother their entire life, and if not actually penniless (the Beales ran through their trust fund years before), lived in a single room and acted that way? Was there something in that era that created issues (and yes, societal and family expectations and lack of choices are acceptable answers)? Did clusters happen in other major cities, too? Are these just isolated examples that happened to come to the world’s attention because they were such outliers, or did things like this happen in tenement families, too? Or is three-four examples just too small a data pool to say anything? It certainly cries for more investigation, but unless you like the dry statistics of Jacob Riis and his studies of New York tenements, there isn’t a lot of information out there.

Watch Grey Gardens. Give Empty Mansions a read (it has a major twist at the end!). If you can, track down The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll. See what you think.

Can you think of any similar biographies?

Emerging Genre Highlight: LitRPG

/ Adam / Leave a comment

LitRPG stands for “literary role-playing game.” These are fantasy or science fiction stories that incorporate elements from tabletop role-playing games (e.g., Dungeons & Dragons) and role-playing video games (e.g., The Elder Scrolls or Fallout series). For those unaware, role playing games (RPGs for short) involve players taking on roles in a fictional environment and developing their character in unique ways as the story progresses. This character development and its associated game mechanics are the common threads you will find in all LitRPG titles.

But haven’t RPG-influenced fantasy and science fiction been around for a while? What makes LitRPG unique? It can be difficult to parse genres because there are already novels that borrow quite a bit from RPGs. Dozens of authors have been writing authorized Dungeons & Dragons stories since the 80s—R. A. Salvatore and Margaret Weis among the most popular of this group. What differentiates LitRPG is that characters are aware of the game mechanics.

In traditional fantasy, a character might defeat an enemy and take their battle-axe. Perhaps the battle-axe emanates warmth and pulses with a red glow. In LitRPG on the other hand, a level 5 character might defeat a level 8 boss and take their Fire-Enchanted Dwarven Battle-Axe. A screen pops up in front of them, floating in mid-air, with text that reads: “This is a unique weapon. Wielder is granted +3 fire damage to melee attacks. When an enemy is slain with this weapon, they erupt in a fiery explosion that deals 5 fire damage to all creatures in a 3 meter radius.”

Ready Player One is a good touchstone when approaching this genre from a non-RPG background. Though some don’t consider it to be true LitRPG, it does feature a protagonist interacting in a video-game world and using game mechanics to become more powerful. There are passages like “This particular magic sword could only be used by an avatar who was tenth level or higher,” which is the kind of writing you would find in LitRPG.

Is this all sounding a little too video-gamey? Like Ready Player One, most LitRPG books can be read with no knowledge or interest in RPGs. I can attest that a number of my close friends are big fans and have never played an RPG in their life. As long as you find some thrill in cool loot, cool magic, and over-the-top action, there will be something for you in LitRPG.

“These books sound fun!” you say. “Where can I get my hands on one?” you ask. Well, LitRPG is still a relatively fledgling genre, and most books are self published. As such, you’ll only find a couple in our library system. More are sure to appear in the next year or two, but if you’re interested in diving into this genre now, you will find them online in eBook and eAudiobook formats. It’s also worth noting that, because of their emphasis on progression over time, many LitRPG series can be more than 10 books long. If you prefer short, self-contained stories, LitRPG is not for you.

So where is this genre headed? In May of this year, the author who brought LitRPG closer to the mainstream, Matt Dinniman, is releasing the next book in his Dungeon Crawler Carl series. It’s worth noting this will be the first new entry in the series published by a major publishing house (Ace, an imprint of Penguin Random House). This is a clear indication that there’s money to be found in LitRPG and I expect other publishing houses will follow suit.

Also important to note: In 2024, Universal International Studios announced they were developing a TV adaptation of Dungeon Crawler Carl. As far as I can tell, it’s too early to call this a done deal; projects like this fizzle into nothing all the time. But if the show comes to fruition, expect even more of a spotlight on LitRPG.

In the meantime, here are several books that serve as good introductions to the genre:

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That’s what.

Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show.

Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the Dungeon. Survival is optional. Keeping the viewers entertained is not.

Level: Unknown by David Dalglish

When an ancient alien artifact chooses research cadet Nick to explore the world stored within it—a place full of forgotten empires, heroes with strange powers, and monstrous creatures that he is automatically transported to when he sleeps—he finds he has no choice but to grow stronger within the realm of Yensere to uncover its mysteries. 

But Yensere isn’t all fun exploration. In this land guided by statistics and levels, Nick is seen as a demonic threat by its diseased inhabitants and always killed on-sight. When he dies in Yensere, he awakens in his bed upon the research station, his body in a state of panic; when he sleeps again, Yensere drags him back for another life…and another death. 

Nick can only keep this up for so long before he dies for real. But there’s a good chance Yensere holds the key to saving humanity from a terrible fate, and so he ventures on, getting stronger and stronger with each new enemy defeated. And there are a LOT of enemies to defeat…

He Who Fights With Monsters by Shirtaloon (a.k.a. Travis Deverell)

It’s not easy making the career jump from office-supplies-store middle manager to heroic interdimensional adventurer. At least, Jason tries to be heroic, but it’s hard to be good when all your powers are evil.

He’ll face off against cannibals, cultists, wizards, monsters…and that’s just on the first day. He’s going to need courage, he’s going to need wit, and he’s going to need some magic powers of his own. But first, he’s going to need pants.

The Wandering Inn by Pirateaba

It’s a bad day when Erin finds herself transported to a fantastical world and nearly gets eaten by a Dragon. She doesn’t belong in a place where monster attacks are a fact of life, and where Humans are one species among many. But she must adapt to her new life. Or die.

In a dangerous world where magic is real and people can level up and gain classes, Erin Solstice must battle somewhat evil Goblins, deadly Rock Crabs, and hungry [Necromancers]. She is no warrior, no mage. Erin Solstice runs an inn.

She’s an [Innkeeper].

The Path of Ascension by C. Mantis

Matt plans to delve the rifts responsible for the monsters that destroyed his city and murdered his parents. But his dreams are crushed when his Tier 1 Talent is rated as detrimental and no guild or group will take him.

Working at a nearby inn, he meets a mysterious and powerful couple who give him a chance to join the Path of Ascension, an empire-wide race to ascend the Tiers and become living legends.

With their recommendation and a stolen Skill, Matt begins his journey to the peak of power. Maybe then, he can get vengeance he seeks…

Survival of the Fittest

/ Susan O. / Leave a comment

I finished reading my last book of the year on December 27 (Sugar, Salt, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, by Michael Moss, which was very good), and figured that was it for the year. I had too much going on to rush another book but I just couldn’t go without reading something, so I grabbed one off my To Be Read shelf – Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, which has so many recommendations the cover should be 14-carat gold.

Every review was correct. I read the book in a day and a half – I probably could have finished it in five hours, if I’d had uninterrupted time. I just could not put this book down. It’s a sparse novel about a father and son in a post-apocalyptic world – you don’t even find out what happened – as they try to survive travel on foot an unknown distance to the south shore to get out of the freezing winter weather. I’m guessing by the fact they crossed over high mountains they were heading to California, but no clues are given (in the movie, the map shows Florida). This book was beyond compelling, certainly worthy of every accolade. But I didn’t feel like writing an entire blog post about it. Nothing is worse than a review that gives a play by play recap of a book.

So I went and looked up books like The Road, because I’ve read enough post-apocalyptic fiction to have covered all the basics. What is it compared to? For decades (and arguably still) my favorite novel of all time, by number of rereads, is Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank, a post-nuclear war novel from 1959. A little dated, but not much. In the chaos of 9/11, I sent my oldest friend a two-word text: Alas, Babylon, and he knew exactly what I meant.

But a couple of similar-to lists had the nerve to list Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart. My father was always after me to read this one, the Alas, Babylon of his youth, before the Cold War. Eventually I did, and honestly, it’s one of the worst apocalyptic books I’ve ever read. Okay, maybe they didn’t realize in 1949 that you should never dust pregnant women with DDT. The chemical world was still pretty much in denial that some things were deadly. But these “survivors,” instead of focusing on long-term survival, worry only about immediate needs and then go hungry when canned food runs out. They have no concept of gardening, let along farming and food storage. They think nothing about education, don’t teach their children even basic reading skills, and so that, although they have public libraries to learn survival skills from, in just one generation, no one can read the books. It’s difficult to root for their survival… After learning what to do and how to do it from Alas, Babylon, I truly hated this book. 

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other really good books (and movies!) out there. And post-apocalyptic doesn’t necessarily mean science-fiction. Stephen King’s The Stand can be drama, horror, alternative history, Christian fiction, speculative fiction, or loosely science fiction, depending on how you want to interpret it. Same with The Road: It’s a story about father-son relationships, survival during hardship, and climate destruction.

Post-apocalyptic fiction simply means that some calamity has befallen society, tearing apart what used to be normal. If a country – China, Turkey, Peru, Afghanistan, etc. – was utterly destroyed by earthquake and subsequent famine and plague, you could call their recovery post-apocalyptic, even though the rest of the world continued. How we formed trade networks and moved to online commerce during the Covid epidemic can be seen as apocalyptic in a way; we are in a post-apocalyptic society from Covid, as many of our bedrock companies folded, telehealth and working from home became a thing, and society as a whole changed. There are many, many excellent “post-apocalyptic” stories out there, some focusing on disease ( The Andromeda Strain), on climate (Day After Tomorrow), natural disasters (asteroids, etc.) (Solar), nuclear holocaust (Planet of the Apes), the death of oil (Road Warrior), electromagnetic pulse (One Second After), and more. How do people adapt? Can mankind survive? What determination does it take? How can you stay hopeful in the face of annihilation? What can we learn from these stories to avoid such scenarios, or how to survive them? Apocalyptic fiction can be quite imaginative (Hunger Games), and appeal to a wide range of readers (and viewers). Sometimes the book is meh, but the film is far better (Planet of the Apes, for one), sometimes the book is excellent but the movie is okay (Girl With All the Gifts), and sometimes there is more than one film version of the book, with differences between them (The Stand, Planet of the Apes, Day of the Triffids, War of the Worlds). All of them will question your morality and make you wonder about your ability to survive a serious disaster.

(Fun fact: the final battle in War of the Worlds was filmed at the old Uniroyal plant in Naugatuck, CT)

Here’s a wide array of post-apocalyptic novels and films sure to keep you engaged. Which do you like best?

Films (some from novels):

Books (some with accompanying films):

Version 1.0.0

Pure Food

/ Susan O. / Leave a comment

The FDA has been under increased scrutiny in recent years. When discussing its value and the ways it promotes public health, it’s important to dive into its history.

A hundred years ago, infant mortality in New York City was 25% – one out of FOUR children would die before the age of one. While diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, small pox, mumps, polio, scarlet fever, cholera, and pneumonia were as common as fleas in crowded, dangerously sub-divided tenements, the greatest cause of infant mortality was… milk. Toxic milk.

Back then, cows were often fed cheap “swill” – the discarded mash from distilleries. Sometimes it was still boiling hot, and needless to say, it made cows – who stood in filth up to their bellies and were often tubercular and covered in udder abscesses – malnourished and ill. They gave off a rancid, thin, blue-gray milk that had no nutritive value. To counteract public opinion, it was often “recolored” with chalk or even plaster. Bread was full of fillers such as sawdust, alum, and plaster. Spoiled meat might be colored up with toxic copper. Lead, copper, and mercury were used to color candies.

Babies died.

Enter the Pure Food and Drug act of 1906. Partly fueled by the nascent science of chemistry which could detect what was really in the food, and partly by the publication of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, a novel based on real events that exposed the horrific true conditions of the Chicago stockyards and meat packing industry, people began to raise a stink about the condition of their food supply. Teddy Roosevelt, a libertarian at heart, was opposed to regulation. He was heavily lobbied by the industries, but eventually signed laws against selling tainted food. Milk, a major spreader of tuberculosis, had to be pasteurized if it was to be sold across state lines. Meat could not have more than a minute amount of contamination. Items sold as remedies had to list their actual ingredients. Infant mortality dropped by 68%.

By 1938 (note: 32 years later), the US Food and Drug Administration was created after more than 100 people died from cough syrup that used anti-freeze as a sweetener. Because of legal loopholes, the only law it broke was mislabeling. The FDA was in charge of overseeing and regulating food, drugs, and cosmetics, making sure that such items were safe for the general public, to the wails of businessmen. The FDA was designed to work alongside the US Department of Agriculture, founded under Abraham Lincoln. Hairs are often split between the two, pushing responsibility back and forth. When a food poisoning outbreak was traced to frozen pot pies, the blame was focused on the FDA for not watching the factory. BUT, the culprit was further traced to the grain in the crust, and grain safety falls under the USDA.

It is almost impossible to eradicate all sources of food poisoning. Chickens can be born Salmonella positive. Listeria survives in soil, then gets tracked on animal feet and into your food. The toxic dose of botulism – that thing people willingly inject in their faces to paralyze muscles? – is so minute it is measured in nanograms (that’s a billionth of a gram. A raisin is about one gram, so think of a raisin in one billion pieces). One single gram – a raisin’s worth – can kill more than a million people. Food poisoning – usually through inadequate cooking – kills more than 3,000 people a year, with an estimated 48 million illnesses in the US alone. As always, children and the elderly are most at risk, as many of these bacteria target kidneys.

Every law regarding food safety –every law – has been enacted because people have been sickened or killed by toxic food. Sellers are trying to maximize profit, and since most US food is owned by a small number of companies (just 4 companies own 90% of US meat production), they can afford an unstoppable army of lobbyists to pressure lawmakers to vote against public interest. So what can you do? Buy from quality sources. Read your labels. If your bread doesn’t mold in 5 days (like all those name-brand hot dog buns), consider it suspect for chemical preservatives, approved or not. Know that meats should be cooked to a specific temperature (depending on the meat), and that no food – hot or cold – should be left out more than 2 hours, probably less in hot weather.

Think you don’t have to worry? Frozen food was recalled last September because six people had died from listeria contamination. In November, more than 10 infants were infected with botulism from baby formula. Poisoned food kills. Support the agencies fighting for you.

Check out these books, and keep yourself informed!

Protecting America’s health : the FDA, business, and one hundred years of regulation by Philip J. Hilts

Eating Dangerously: Why the Government Can’t Keep Your Food Safe, and How You Can by Michael Booth

The Poison Squad by Deborah Blum

Death in the Pot by Morton Satin

Outbreak: Foodborne Illness and the Struggle for Food Safety by Timothy Lytton

Swindled: The Dark History of Food Cheats by Bee Wilson

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E. coli Outbreak That Changed the Way Americans Eat by Jeff Benedict