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The Power of Narratives: A Tale of Lobotomist and Patient
Sometimes I find that a tale does not belong in a book or article I am writing, but it is too good to forget. This is one such example. On…
Read MoreAmateur Historians in the News
While I was researching my book The Lobotomist, one of my most valuable resources was a lanky and slow-moving man who granted me interviews in the book-filled living room of his…
Read MoreThe FBI’s File on Frank Lloyd Wright
When I researched a project years ago with Freedom of Information Act expert Michael Ravnitzky, he showed me a copy he had acquired of the FBI’s file on the famed architect Frank…
Read MoreThe Story of Max Weisberg, Savant Sports Bookie
A few months ago I published a short Kindle ebook about Max Weisberg, a remarkable mentally disabled savant I met during the 1990s. Max could barely read and didn’t know how to…
Read MoreFour Top History Blogs
Since starting my own blog last month, I’ve gained a greater appreciation for the efforts of other history enthusiasts who have produced impressive blogs for a long time. How do…
Read MoreU.S. Supreme Court Decides Whether the Tomato is Fruit or Vegetable
All of last week’s attention on the U.S. Supreme Court reminded me of an earlier decision that was downright pedestrian compared with the court’s judgment on healthcare law. The big…
Read MoreGodfather of the Lobotomy: Egas Moniz
In 2010 we saw no big celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the development of psychiatric surgery — not even in Portugal, where the first brain operations to treat psychiatric disorders,…
Read MoreWhat’s Wrong with the Crazy Horse Monument?
Four years ago, I took my family on a road trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Along the way, we toured the Corn Palace in Mitchell, sipped water…
Read More13 Weeks Eating Nothing But White Castle Hamburgers, in the Name of Science
What happens when you take a healthy young man and feed him nothing but hamburgers and water for three months? It sounds like the genesis of an edgy film —…
Read MoreConfessions of an Art Linkletter Kid
Art Linkletter died two years ago, but I still sometimes think about the long black limousine that appeared outside my Los Angeles elementary school one morning during the spring of…
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