Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam

WWII buffs should read this book

In addition to the excellent points in the Dr's review, the author peels back a very important layer of the 30's in America when a powerful flirtation with Facism bubbled to the surface in many more places than we would like to admit. The so called 'Dr.' Brinkley was an open admirer of Adolf Hitler and an active participant in the America First movement. The Dr. may have well won election as govenor of Kansas by independently taking up the campaign vehicle that der Furher is credited with inventing - the campaign airplane. The Democrats and the Republicans likely colluded to prevent his election. If so it was a rare instance in American history when the end may well have really justified the means. Brinkely also pionered talk radio and mass marketing. Folks like Johnny Cash got their careers started on his border blaster radio station located just south of the Rio Grande.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

A reviewer

Imagine, if you will, a time when water laced with radium promoted good health, wearing an electric fez was guaranteed to re-grow hair, and having the 'glands' of a monkey or goat grafted onto your own could restore youth and sexual virility. Sounds like the Dark Ages, right? Try something a bit closer to today... say, less than 100 years ago. These treatments and others were common in an America struggling to recover from the horror of World War I and the shock of the Great Depression. Some were legitimate trial-and-error experiments by trained and learned physicians. Most were dangerous, sometimes deadly frauds perpetrated by skilled fly-by-night 'doctors' who make the fictional Professor Harold Hill look like a saint. Pope Brock's new book ''Charlatan'' focuses on the meteoric rise and fall of Dr. John Brinkley -- the most famous of the early 20th century's medical hucksters -- and Morris Fishbein, the crusading editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, who made it his life's work to bust medical quacks of all stripes, but Brinkley in particular. It's also a startling look at how far the medical profession has come in the past century, in terms of approving the education and conduct of its members. Brock takes what could have been dry and dull and makes it into a crackling read. A definite must-read!

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

A fascinating tale

The early to mid-twentieth century was a time of "anything goes" in patent medicine and medical quackery; the author weaves the almost unbelievable story of the King of Quacks and the man who tried unceasingly to expose him into a tapestry of background history of the period. I even learned how the powerful border radio stations that I used to listen to as a teen got started...

All physicians would benefit from reading

A look into history, this book fascinated me as a physician and a Kansas resident. This con artist had a huge impact in marketing, radio advertising and selling himself. He was almost elected govener of Kansas. The AMA should consider going back to it's roots, of ferreting out scam artist and sham procedures. We need more accountability in medicine, just because some treatment is new or uses some new tangled technology does not mean it is better. Look at Medtronics today and BMP 2. We have not really progressed much in medcine. Great book.

Entertaining, enlightening but downright scary

Pope Brock's cautionary tale is an eye-opener. Everyone from Herbert Hoover to June Carter to Wolfman Jack makes an appearance. John Brinkley was a charlatan on a superhuman scale, a con man of unimaginable nerve, imagination and brilliance - who was responsible for hundreds, perhaps thousands of deaths and untold suffering while becoming the best known and wealthiest doctor in the world. His nemesis, Morris Fishbein of the nascent AMA, is also a larger-than-life character. Brinkley invented modern political campaigns and is the godfather of country music in the USA thanks to his million watt broadcasts to all 50 states. A terrific, informative book.

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