The Arsenic Century
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.65
Trade in The Arsenic Century: How Victorian Britain was Poisoned at Home, Work, and Play for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.65, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
the most unlikely topics can generate books of the utmost interest (The Independent )
a highly entertaining text (Ambix, Vol. 58 )
a highly entertaining text (Ambix, Vol. 58 )
Product Description
Arsenic is rightly infamous as the poison of choice for Victorian murderers. Yet the great majority of fatalities from arsenic in the nineteenth century came not from intentional poisoning, but from accident. Kept in many homes for the purpose of poisoning rats, the white powder was easily mistaken for sugar or flour and often incorporated into the family dinner. It was also widely present in green dyes, used to tint everything from candles and candies to curtains, wallpaper, and clothing (it was arsenic in old lace that was the danger). Whether at home amidst arsenical curtains and wallpapers, at work manufacturing these products, or at play swirling about the papered, curtained ballroom in arsenical gowns and gloves, no one was beyond the poison's reach. Drawing on the medical, legal, and popular literature of the time, The Arsenic Century paints a vivid picture of its wide-ranging and insidious presence in Victorian daily life, weaving together the history of its emergence as a nearly inescapable household hazard with the sordid story of its frequent employment as a tool of murder and suicide. And ultimately, as the final chapter suggests, arsenic in Victorian Britain was very much the pilot episode for a series of environmental poisoning dramas that grew ever more common during the twentieth century and still has no end in sight.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
To be Victorian was, it seems, to be arsenicated. The poison was in everything: used as a dye in textiles, wallpaper and even children's toys, added to sweets and foodstuffs, employed to dip sheep and as an insecticide on fruit. It even found its way into beer. It was made into medicines (some of which remained in use well into the 20th century). It was also, of course, used by murderers and would be murderers (perhaps its most familiar role to us). After reading this book, one might wonder how anybody survived the 19th century at all.
In this book, Whorton traces the history of arsenic and its use, including the struggles of forensic chemists to develop tests (all those murder trials!) and traces some of the involved routes by which the chemical came to be consumed. It's not for the fainthearted. The descriptions of the agonies inflicted by arsenic poisoning are hardly lunchtime reading, and the attitude of the authorities, as the scale of the chemical's penetration into everyday life became apparent, can be infuriating. Vested interests (William Morris refused to accept that use of the poison in the wallpapers his firm produced was a danger - he referred to the "arsenic scare") and a laissez-faire attitude unwilling to risk damage to trade, repeatedly hampered attempts to control the use of arsenic. Whorton, of course, draws parallels with later environmental and health threats (though perhaps they hardly need spelling out).
It is an excellent read.
Recommended.
In this book, Whorton traces the history of arsenic and its use, including the struggles of forensic chemists to develop tests (all those murder trials!) and traces some of the involved routes by which the chemical came to be consumed. It's not for the fainthearted. The descriptions of the agonies inflicted by arsenic poisoning are hardly lunchtime reading, and the attitude of the authorities, as the scale of the chemical's penetration into everyday life became apparent, can be infuriating. Vested interests (William Morris refused to accept that use of the poison in the wallpapers his firm produced was a danger - he referred to the "arsenic scare") and a laissez-faire attitude unwilling to risk damage to trade, repeatedly hampered attempts to control the use of arsenic. Whorton, of course, draws parallels with later environmental and health threats (though perhaps they hardly need spelling out).
It is an excellent read.
Recommended.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is the most interesting history book that I have read in a very long time. The style is gripping (and nicely edited into 'English' English - the author is an American) and fluid so, once you pick this book up, you'll find it hard to put back down. Occasional asides make interesting comparison with modern controversies (such as the controversy over trans-fat in food), and it's hard not to make ones own comparisons between the unwillingness of business to abandon Arsenic in Victorian times and the unwillingness of business to 'green-up' today.
For anyone who yearns for the past, let this book be a warning to you!
For anyone who yearns for the past, let this book be a warning to you!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a fascinating book by James C Whorton which illustrates just how dangerous it was in Victorian times, with virulent poisons readily on sale and obtainable. One of the worst was Scheele's Green, a dye which produced a lovely green colour on items like wallpaper, fumes from which could be very debilitating and on occasion fatal. The book discloses that Napoleon probably did not die of arsenical poisoning, although he, Josephine and their son were found to have had arsenic residue in their hair over a number of years, probably via Scheele's. Illustrations are largely confined to line drawings. A must for Victorian scholars and anyone who likes true-crime fact, although I found the writing a bit pedestrian, which was disappointing and resulted in the loss of a star. Worth buying though.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Enthralling
I read good reviews of this book and decided to buy it.
Glad I did.
It describes the prevalence of arsenic in the 1800s - it was everywhere. Read more
Glad I did.
It describes the prevalence of arsenic in the 1800s - it was everywhere. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Bob from Beds
Fascinating and very readable social history
I hadn't expected this to be such an enjoyable read. When I say enjoyable, I mean informed, intelligent, entertaining and well researched. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Bookie
You won't believe the half of it!
I'm only up to Chapter 4. This wonderful book is riveting. If you're fascinated by the history of medicine, health, crime and environmental health then this book won't... Read more
Published 3 months ago by FoxWife
Lethal stuff
This book is about the direct use and accidental use of arsenic in the Victorian Age.
It would seem that there was some confusion about whether it was actually bad for... Read more
It would seem that there was some confusion about whether it was actually bad for... Read more
Published 4 months ago by C. Jenner
elginson
The Arsenic Century has been researched in exhaustive detail and sometimes feels like it. For a book dealing with wholesale death, scandal, murder and institutional ineptitude, the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Elginson
elly
I bought this book on the strength of other reviews, particularly one review in a national newspaper. Read more
Published 7 months ago by elly
Very interesting read!
"How much can you really say about Arsenic?" was my first thought when I ordered this book but I was encouraged by the positive ratings. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Review
Excellent and very readable
This is very well written book - save for the few strange Americanisms and grammatical errors. The big question is, how did so many people survive the Victorian era (I think... Read more
Published 13 months ago by John in Cornwall
A dead good read!
Over the last year I have started to enjoy reading Science. Furthermore, I have always been fascinated by a good murder! So what could be better than a book that combines the two. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Ed J
Arsenic and old lace!
A very interesting scientific/historical account of the uses and abuses of arsenic. Industrial and personal uses of the poison are well covered. Read more
Published on 21 Mar 2010 by Mr. D. McKenna
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
