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America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam
Crown
February 2008
On Sale: February 5, 2008
Featuring: John R. Brinkley
336 pages
ISBN: 0307339882
EAN: 9780307339881
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
In 1917, after years of selling worthless patent remedies throughout the Southeast, John R. BrinkleyβAmericaβs most brazen young con manβarrived 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 βDr.β Brinkley into Americaβs richest and most famous surgeon. His notoriety captured the attention of the great quackbuster Morris Fishbein, who vowed to put the countryβs βmost daring and dangerousβ charlatan out of business.
Their cat-and-mouse game lasted throughout the 1920s and β30s, but despite Fishbeinβs 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 worldβs 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 βnβ 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.
 Media BuzzDiane Rehm Show - NPR - December 28, 2009
Diane Rehm Show - NPR - February 7, 2008
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