Cerealizing America

by Scott Bruce

A product of nineteenth-century religious reform, twentieth-century media hype, and an enduring health food fanaticism, breakfast cereal has become an American institution. Part history, part expose, and part celebration, Cerealizing America chronicles the entire saga of cold cereal. The story begins in the late 1800s, when a young Adventist doctor named John Harvey Kellogg transformed Battle Creek, Michigan, into a mecca for health seekers. Among the thousands who came to experience his regimen of biologic living was C. W. Post, whose appropriation of Kellogg's recipes kicked off a struggle for breakfast table supremacy that continues to this day. As other cereal manufacturers entered the fray, so did the ad agencies, opening the door to sponsorship of radio and television shows from The Lone Ranger to The Beverly Hillbillies, premiums from decoder rings to Yukon real estate, and a cast of pitch-characters from Cap'n Crunch to Count Chocula. Filled to the brim with scandals, triumphs,