In addition to capturing the personalities of the two brothers, Markel does an extraordinary job covering the many complex dimensions of this story, including John’s later, unfortunate embrace of his own idiosyncratic version of the pseudoscience of eugenics ... Markel, the author of three previous, well-received histories has, by reaching into a simple box of cornflakes, come up with a rich and satisfying account of the lives, work and enmity of two warring brothers and of a pivotal epoch in American history.
...a compelling yarn and a fascinating window into the genesis of both modern medicine and management ... Mr. Markel is most effective in conveying the state of medical science when the Kelloggs appeared on the scene. The description of John Harvey Kellogg’s medical training in New York City at Bellevue in the late 1800s, when that institution was indisputably the premier teaching hospital in North America, is eye-opening ... The Kelloggs is markedly less successful at illuminating the remarkable accomplishments of the bitter and taciturn Will Keith Kellogg once he escaped the suffocating grip of his brother ... The Kelloggs tells a good story of how an epically dysfunctional family produced two monumentally successful institutions. The story of how those institutions have flourished independently for more than 65 years since the death of their founder is worthy of another book.
...[a] comprehensive, if sometimes plodding, dual biography ... Markel has dived deep into archives and brings an impressive knowledge of American cultural and food history to his account. The brothers may have hated one another, but Markel is persuasive in his case that neither would have succeeded alone ... John, always attracted to visions of purity, would take a dark turn to eugenics. In the end it is Will who emerges as the more sympathetic figure — and better businessman. Even in terms of their philanthropic efforts, it would be Will, not John, 'who achieved a certain kind of immortality.’'’
Mr. Markel’s portrayal of the sibling dynamic edges a bit into a Scrooge-and-Cratchit stereotype, though it is amply backed up by anecdotes ... As compelling as their story may be, The Kelloggs has its flaws. The most irritating is that, after a straightforward chronicle of the family’s early years, Mr. Markel abandons chronology; the book jumps around in time more than a Quentin Tarantino movie ... This kind of thing robs the book of narrative drive. The other problem isn’t really the author’s fault. The main characters are so deeply defined by their hatred of each other, and so much larger than life—John sporting a bushy white beard, Will driving one of his sons to suicide—that a reader yearns for vivid scenes of their conflict.
The Kelloggs is a serious and in every way commendable book — in its painstaking research, its superb prose and storytelling, and most importantly, its energy and spirit ... Markel, himself an M.D. and a University of Michigan authority on the history of medicine, tells this story in synopsis in his introduction, so well and so completely you might wonder what more the book has to offer. The Battling Brothers of Battle Creek is, by itself, droll comedy, and more than a little sad.
But chapter by chapter, in one finely crafted paragraph after another, Markel holds your interest ... The Kelloggs is a highly satisfying book, a cultural history in the best tradition of William R. Leach's 1994 Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture.
...vividly recounts the contentious story of two men behind the early 20th century's revolution in ready-to-eat foods ... Markel's tale is a mix of a Horatio Alger success story and a cautionary fable about blind egos sabotaging their own best efforts ... Markel's writing can occasionally be shaky. But the book is lively throughout as it delivers a tale both personal in its intensity and grand in its scope.
Readers who suspect their lives might provide entertainment will not be disappointed by this delightful biography ... Markel refreshingly resists the temptation—not resisted by films and novels—to deliver caricatures. Embracing scientific medicine, John was a skilled, respected surgeon who was charitable and uninterested in riches. Will was a brilliant entrepreneur, a considerate boss, and founder of a world-class humanitarian foundation. The author effectively shows the brothers’ 'remarkable success was mutually dependent if not outright synergistic.' A superb warts-and-all account of two men whose lives help illuminate the rise of health promotion and the modern food industry.
While Markel plays up the brothers’ individual achievements, he likewise examines their failures, such as Kellogg’s belief in eugenics and Will’s perfectionist obsession with his company. 'The psychic costs their flaws imposed upon each other were every bit as dear as their outsized talents, imagination, and lasting effect on the world,' Markel concludes. It’s a fascinating look at two people who helped shape a pivotal time.
