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

Loved reading this book and have bought it as a gift and recommended it to so many, mostly doctors. Everyone loves it. Amazing story.

I wasn’t quite sure what I was expecting when I bought Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam, but the topic caught my attention. I have to say that I loved it. It was a narrative type of non-fiction that I like to read and Pope Brock can tell an intriguing story.Of course, he also found a great subject to write about, which is half of the battle.In the early 20th century, confidence man John Brinkley came up with his ultimate money-making scheme. He would use surgery and goat testicles to restore male virility. It makes most men cringe nowadays, but think about some of the odd things we still do to maintain our youth that involved surgery.Brinkley also developed a sideline of selling potions and pills that turned out not to contain what they claimed to contain. This sort of thing was going on before Brinkley with snake oil salesmen and still continues today.I found myself reading the book and thinking how could people fall for this, but then I thought about the modern equivalents and wondered how many times I’ve been taken in without knowing it.Brinkley made a fortune off his quack theories and inspired a lot of copycat “doctors.” He also left behind dozens of dead and maimed people, all the while claiming success.So, if Brinkley was the antagonist, the protagonist would be Morris Fishbein, the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association. I’m not sure about other readers, but I just didn’t like Fishbein. I actually found myself hoping that he would fail in his efforts to destroy Brinkley. On the other hand, I found myself cheering for Brinkley at times because he wouldn’t be stopped. He kept reinventing himself to work around the restrictions that were thrown at him. I admired that even though I hated what he was doing.I’ve seen a few movies and read some books lately where I didn’t like either the protagonist or antagonist. Who do you root for then?Besides his gross medical malpractice, Brinkley also had an impact on politics, radio, and country music.One reason why Brinkley was successful with his scams was because he was a master marketer. His initial marketing efforts dealt with newspaper advertising and direct mail. He recognized the marketing potential of the new media of the day, radio, and made the most of it.When the government started to crack down on how the airwaves were used, Brinkley moved south of the border and opened a radio station in Mexico that eventually broadcast more than a million watts. Not only was this more powerful than his Oklahoma radio station had been, it was more powerful than all of the U.S. radio stations combined.Besides pitches for his products and surgeries, Brinkley also presented entertainment. Many of the performers he chose went on to become pioneers in country music.When Fishbein started to have an impact on Brinkley’s goat gland empire, he used his radio popularity to move into politics and very nearly became elected governor of Oklahoma as a third-party candidate.I found Charlatan to be a fascinating story. I kept guessing at what Brinkley would do next to outwit Fishbein and his other detractors.

I bought my first copy at a Dollar Tree, and at least five copies here. It's exhaustingly researched so the first half of the story seemed a little slow but by the end there is so much of American history and culture tied to this narrative that, if you wade through the backstory you'll wonder how history could be taught without this knowledge. It will amaze you with the resilience of the human body and shed light on some of our most iconic musical artists. Granted, I'm not your average reader, but if I invested in 6 copies to give away, there had to be some redeeming value in this story. A huge web of intrigue.

We never learn, do we? While I was reading ths book, I kept thinking about all the health huskers that exist today. I will avoid naming names, but I think Dr. Brinkley would really enjoy television, and the current internet access. He would have continued on his merry path of medical malpractice...just as many others continue to do today. This book didn't surprise me much. I was not aware of this particular quack, but I've read of many of these guys...I was actually reading more for the information about Morris Fishbein. I was a little disappointed that more information about Fishbein and the American Medical Association at that point of time wasn't given.I wish people would educate themselves more about various 'medications' and proposed surgeries. I always do research on everything ahead of times...and it is never a good idea to be the first few people to try medicines or surgeries if you can avoid it. I teach pathophysiology in college, and I've learned that people are too gullible as far as doctors are concerned. They are not Gods, even if they have an MD. As a PhD who went through classes with the MDs, too many of them didn't understand the need for research, and their behavior with patients wasn't what I would have liked it!Brinkley may have lost everything at the end, but he made a good life for himself and his family off of the money of others. I'm afraid I agree with Fishbein, Dr. Brinkley had absolutely no qualms about either his goat gland operations or killing people...not a shred of remorse or concern for others.Book was very readable, and definitely a good addition to the history of medicine!

This is a fascinating and cautionary tale of John R. Brinkley who frightened men into giving him huge sums of their hard earned cash in return for cures for "man problems".Medical quackery has been around for ages and though hard to define, it is easy to recognize. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably quackery.Dr. Steven Barrett MD wrote an article that can found on the internet that states how difficult a black and white definition can be:"Quackery is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon. A practitioner may be scientific in many respects and only minimally involved in unscientific practices. Also, products and procedures can be useful for some purposes but worthless for others. For example:Vitamin B12 shots are lifesaving in cases of pernicious anemia, but giving them frequently to "pep you up" is a sign of poor judgment, greed, or both.Spinal manipulation may be effective for relief of appropriately selected cases of low back pain, but manipulation to correct chiropractic's imaginary "subluxations" is quackery."We've all seen infomercials where we've asked ourselves how can people buy into these crackpot schemes. This book gives a historical perspective on how gullible the public can be and how there is a trickster with his palm out awaiting payment.This is an interesting read. Well worth your time and money.....bg

Great read - full of amazing lessons

Superbly crafted and enthralling...Brock’s droll style is perfect for this tale of trickery and credulity.