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Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam | 
 enlarge | Author: Pope Brock
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $10.17
You Save: $4.78 (32%)
Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 119117
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0307339890
Dewey Decimal Number: 364
EAN: 9780307339898
ASIN: 0307339890
Publication Date: January 13, 2009 (In 4 Days)
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Not yet published
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| Also Available In:
| • | Hardcover - 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 CD - Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam | | • | Unknown Binding - Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam: Library Edition | | • | Kindle Edition - 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 |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
“An extraordinary saga of the most dangerous quack of all time...entrancing” –USA Today
In 1917, John R. Brinkley–America’s most brazen con man–introduced an outlandish surgical method for restoring fading male virility.
It was all nonsense, but thousands of eager customers quickly made “Dr.” Brinkley one of America’s richest men–and a national celebrity. The great quack buster Morris Fishbein vowed to put the country’s “most daring and dangerous” charlatan out of business, yet each effort seemed only to spur Brinkley to new heights of ingenuity, and the worlds of advertising, broadcasting, and politics soon proved to be equally fertile grounds for his potent brand of flimflam.
Culminating in a decisive courtroom confrontation, Charlatan is a marvelous portrait of a boundlessly audacious rogue on the loose in an America ripe for the bamboozling.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...
 Riveting! An amazing story, well-told December 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is, without question, the best book I read this year, perhaps in the last few years. The story of a Kansas doctor in the 1920s who performed hundreds of surgeries to implant goat "glands" in men who were feeling impotent. The operation was a farce, but few people truly questioned it and he made millions from it. His operation eventually expanded into medical diagnoses issued over the radio and prescriptions for overpriced sugar pills.
But this is also the story of the man who tried to bring the charlatan down. The man who nearly ruined his own career to end that of another. For a nation who is still obsessed with "alternative" treatment of ailments or disorders, this book is a keen reminder that not everyone who offers a "solution" is in business to help you.
This book is very well written and the story is so fascinating that I'm sure anyone who would pick it up would enjoy it.
Charlatan December 22, 2008
Oh my, I have never met a character quite like this. By the time you finish reading you just are amazed at how brillant and twisted this guy was. He could have made a fortune any number of ways, instead,he chose goat testicles! Probably one of my persoanl favorites of the year.
Horrifying, hilarious, and compulsively readable. November 23, 2008
Once I started this book, I could hardly bear to stop - I read it in two sittings.
"Charlatan" has everything. A larger than life scoundrel ("Doctor" J.R. Brinkley) with his own personal Inspector Javert (famed quackbuster Morris Fishbein). Goat testicles, monkey glands, and other equally dubious aids to virility. Dirty campaign tactics. Outrageous marketing ploys. The birth of AM radio, country music, the Carter Family, and the blues.
Will Dr Fishbein, head of the American Medical Association, be able to take down J.R. Brinkley, the consummate charlatan of the age, before the count of the maimed and the dead gets completely out of hand? Follow their astonishing 20-year cat and mouse game to its nailbiting courtroom showdown. You couldn't ask for a better guide than Pope Brock, who captures the outrageousness of this horrifying story brilliantly, with just the right kind of sly wit.
"Charlatan" was hilarious, outrageous, informative, and hands down the most entertaining book I've read all year.
(With special cameo appearances by W.B. Yeats and H.L. Mencken).
Hilarious and scary October 31, 2008
Lively and colorful writing, and what a story. Here's a guy who waved the populist banner, made out that the government and the AMA were conspiring to destroy him, and got away with quackery and--in some cases--murder and mayhem for years. And it didn't happen all that long ago. The lucky ones among his "patients" merely got their pockets picked. Fascinating, and not just as a period piece; we all know there are still Dr. Brinkleys out there today.
It took balls - goat balls to be exact. September 22, 2008
Great fun. Highly informative. Terrific read. Although the story is set in the early part of the 20th century, it's relevant today - shockingly and amusingly so. People haven't changed. The scams haven't changed much either. Where there is a buck to made off the plight of some poor soul, there is always a line to fleece them. Dr. Brinkley was at the front of the line for almost 20 years, not only fleecing, but often butchering or killing his patients in the process. Dr. Fishbein, a man on a mission, to stop Brinkley from practicing, pursued him for decades. He finally had his day in court. Along the way, Brinkley's innovations in radio, marketing and political campaigning, are going strong today. A truly wonderful book.
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