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Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam | 
| Author: Pope Brock
Publisher: Crown
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $12.38
You Save: $12.57 (50%)
New (37) Used (10) Collectible (1) from $12.35
Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 6267
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 0307339882
Dewey Decimal Number: 615.856
EAN: 9780307339881
ASIN: 0307339882
Publication Date: February 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: excellent condition . .will ship immediately
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| • | Paperback - Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam | | • | Audio CD - Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam | | • | Audio Download - Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him and the Age of Flimflam (Unabridged) | | • | MP3 CD - Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam | | • | Kindle Edition - Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam | | • | Audio CD - Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam |
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Product Description
In 1917, after years of selling worthless patent remedies throughout the Southeast, John R. Brinkley–America’s most brazen young con man–arrived in the tiny town of Milford, Kansas. He set up a medical practice and introduced an outlandish surgical method using goat glands to restore the fading virility of local farmers.
It was all nonsense, of course, but thousands of paying customers quickly turned “Dr.” Brinkley into America’s richest and most famous surgeon. His notoriety captured the attention of the great quackbuster Morris Fishbein, who vowed to put the country’s “most daring and dangerous” charlatan out of business.
Their cat-and-mouse game lasted throughout the 1920s and ’30s, but despite Fishbein’s efforts Brinkley prospered wildly. When he ran for governor of Kansas, he invented campaigning techniques still used in modern politics. Thumbing his nose at American regulators, he built the world’s most powerful radio transmitter just across the Rio Grande to offer sundry cures, and killed or maimed patients by the score, yet his warped genius produced innovations in broadcasting that endure to this day. By introducing country music and blues to the nation, Brinkley also became a seminal force in rock ’n’ roll. In short, he is the most creative criminal this country has ever produced.
Culminating in a decisive courtroom confrontation that pit Brinkley against his nemesis Fishbein, Charlatan is a marvelous portrait of a boundlessly audacious rogue on the loose in an America that was ripe for the bamboozling.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 Goat gland doctor from Kansas May 11, 2008
I purchased this book on a colleagues recommendation and read it on a trip t o Brazil. I could hardly put it down. The author writes in an extrememly amusing way of a little known chapter in the history of the US in the early part of the 20th century. It is hard to believe that such recent history has so little to do with modern medicine.
Brock Created a Masterpiece May 7, 2008
This book is a fantasticly written story about a part of American history that is a common thread to us all, yet few know about it. Brock's mastry of the written word and clever phrase makes this book a delightful read!
Learning and enjoying April 27, 2008
This is the most enjoyable book I have read in a long while. It reads like a page turning novel and yet it is history and includes the beginnings of the modern AMA, why Viagra is advertized during the dinner hour on TV, talk-radio and politics, hearing it on the "X" and so much more. Why alternative medicine can be so "true" to to so many, why rational arguments about medicine, health, and polictics may never be really made.
I ordered two as gifts for a couple of doctor friends and have led my copy to a few others.
Outstanding Historical Account of Absurd Character April 25, 2008
Truly fascinating. Pope Brock's in-depth detail of the extraordinary life of "Doctor" John R. Brinkley turned what might have been a milquetoast tale of pseudoscience into a page-turning biography of a character so absurd, it could only be a factual account. Fiction could not conceive of such audacity. Written in an eloquent, sometimes clinical, mostly conversational tone, Brock adeptly portrays Brinkley as a medical hack of Machiavellian proportions. This novel follows the twists and turns in the 20+ years that Brinkley practiced medicine - tracking him from Chicago to Kansas, California to Texas, leaving a glut of patients impotent, infertile, mutilated, and often dead. Brock is adept at utilizing the massive amounts of research he compiled from primary and secondary sources and presenting them in a manner that is engaging and engrossing.
As a member of Generation X, I had never heard of this larger-than-life character JR Brinkley, so I immediately consulted my elders - chiefly my grandmother and my endocrinologist - both of whom had heard of this infamous charlatan. This biography is nothing like my usual paperbacked fare (I lean more towards thrillers and detective novels), but I am exceedingly pleased that I picked it up. I blew through it in a weekend; I really couldn't put it down. Highly recommended.
 Shocking "butt" very Interesting! April 17, 2008
This is a very interesting book. Prior to reading the book, I had no idea who Dr. Brinkley was, nor the atrocities that he inflicted upon people. If he were alive today, I am sure that he would have been a pioneer in marketing his goat gland rejuvenation treatments via the Internet.
Dr. Brinkley was eventually stopped. Unfortunately, he has been replaced by today's charlatans, who prosper as spammers, as they push their miracle drugs and treatments to desperate people who are willing to try anything!
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