A disturbingly eye-opening must-read.
A striking account of medical malfeasance and the whistleblowers who have fought against it.
Though he graduated from medical school, Elliott, author of White Coat, Black Hat, never practiced and now teaches philosophy, including a course on scandals in medical research and those who blew the whistle. In Hollywood movies, whistleblowers often struggle courageously before crushing the villain. In reality, they generally lose their jobs, pay their own lawyers’ fees, and, blackballed within their profession, disappear into obscurity. Elliott’s account of a handful of experiments makes for fascinating yet painful reading. In every case, many participants disapproved but kept quiet. The author concentrates on those who spoke up, and it is not a pretty picture. He begins with the infamous Tuskegee study, which began in 1932. “For forty years,” writes Elliott, “the US Public Health Service had deceived and exploited hundreds of poor Black men with syphilis.” From the late 1940s through the 1980s at Willowbrook, the massive Staten Island institution for children with intellectual disabilities, researchers deliberately infected children with hepatitis on the excuse that they would have gotten it anyway. A 1960s Pentagon-financed study at Cincinnati Medical Center aimed to determine how much radiation American soldiers could withstand. All subjects developed radiation sickness, and many died. Perhaps the most grotesque researcher in Elliott’s harrowing narrative was Paolo Macchiarini, a charismatic, possibly psychopathic surgeon who became an international celebrity for developing a synthetic trachea that could replace one destroyed by cancer or infections. After years of fruitless whistleblowing, it finally became clear that the replacement trachea was worthless; all patients died after prolonged suffering. Elliott’s whistleblowers have a spotty record; many victories were partial or occurred long after the fact; some failed; none prospered from their efforts. “Whistleblowing is a poor mechanism for institutional reform,” he writes, and “full-blown success” is difficult to find.
A disturbingly eye-opening must-read.Pub Date: May 14, 2024
ISBN: 9781324065500
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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