Truly exceptional - a detailing of the truly weird things people sometimes do...

3.5 Regardless of the less than ideal state of the world today, this is one of those books that at least medically, make one grateful that we were born in today's medical world. This book is incredibly comprehensive and we'll researched. I know most of us have heard of the use of leeches, cold water cures, opium, electro shock therapy and the use of these have made us shudder with the knowledge we have now.

Some of the things in this book I had never heard before. Such as the use of skulls and brain parts of the dead to cure epilepsy, and mummy infused poultices to cure many different ailments. Mercury infusions for syphilis, oil from human fat for pain and also as a cancer treatment. There is so much in this book, even past sex toys and animal derived cures. Nasty, nasty! The background of these things, how they came to be, how they were packaged and sold is part of this thorough book. One thing though that bothered me when it seemed to be overdone is the authors pithy comments, which in the beginning seemed amusing, but began to wear.

How did people survive some of these things? Well of course many didn't, but those that did were amazingly lucky or smart enough to stop taking these things when they seemed to be doing more harm. Probably like many of us did in the world before safe playground equipment, seatbelts and bike helmets.

ARC from Netgalley.

Most of us dread a trip to the doctor's office. I know I do! But have you ever thought how nice it actually is to go to one and, well, not have to fear heavy metal poisoning? Or... not have to lose a pint of blood to purge you?

Yeah, when I think about it, it's definitely good that the 21st century is the way it is, even if our medical systems are not perfect (I hear you.) But medicine hasn't always been like it is today. And this book will tell you how it was before it was like it is today.

I love receiving ARCs, but the saddest bit about having this one was that it was electronic, and I longed for nothing more than to actually have a beautiful print copy on my coffee table, to be able to flick through it and read up on the hilarious/ scary/ icky medicinal history whenever I wanted to. This is just one of those books you don't read in one sitting – it's one of the books you find on your grandpa's shelf when you're visiting, when you're little, and you peer into the world it tells you about little bit little, bit by bit, because you're too afraid to peek for too long, but too curious to let it go, and too worried you'll run out of the book if you read it properly.

Quackery is organized like one of those trivia books – it doesn't follow a particular storyline, but is focused on the different types of quackery that's been attempted to sell and successfully sold to people in the history of the known world. Examples follow:

Antimony puke chalices
Radium jockstraps
Arsenic wallpapers
Strychnine potency drugs
Cocaine toothache drops for kids
And let's not forget the famous snake oil
You'd be surprised at all of the disgusting, weird and utterly stupid things people have done throughout history to cure their ails. I am simply unable to tell you the extent of it, and I feel like I don't have to – that's what this book is for. It's creepy, it's colorful, it's got great graphics, it's got amazing trivia. What's more, it's not some boring history book either! It's written in a very engaging and witty style, so you will never be bored. I do recommend it to everyone, even to the squeamish (that's me!) There might be a few chapters you skip because of this, but if you're as curious as I am – you will definitely enjoy it.

I thank Lydia Kang, Nate Pedersen and Workman Publishing Company for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange to my honest opinion.

I have been looking for a book like this ever since I started working in the library. The book is about the weird and sometimes deadly things people used to believe about the human body. Like they believed that if you ate gold you can become immortal. Part of me wants to buy the physical copy because I'm sure the Kindle version is not as pretty. (This was not available to download from Netgalley for Kindle.)

This book was an amusing, yet slightly terrifying read. I was fascinated to read about the beliefs people had about how the body worked, how to fix medical issues and some of the crazy things used for medicine. I'm not going to lie, I thought about which medicines/medical treatments that we're using now that will probably be considered insane to later generations too. The pictures in the ARC did not have captions. I imagine that I would enjoy it more when those are in it. If you're interested in how people in different times and places have lived, I would recommend this book. Thanks to NetGalley and Workman Publishing Company.

Quakery by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen discusses all of the medical wonders that turned into "I wonder why anyone thought that was a good idea". It combines humor with medical history to give readers a glimpse into the highly questionable medical practices of the past. The book was fascinating and scary all at the same time. It made me wonder which medical marvels of today will become the cautionary tales of tomorrow. I do wish the book had been a bit more serious. Otherwise it was well put together.

Very interesting history on the Quacks of the past. I love how the author infused what could've been a long and monotonous journey, with bouts of humor. Although it was a very intriguing ride, it became a bit repetitive about 200 pages in.

Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen

Page count:
352
Format:
ARC eBook
ASIN/ISBN:
B06XDX2X15/9780761189817

Quackery takes readers on a journey through history’s most abominable and misguided medical treatments.
From the dumb to the deadly, a wide range of poor treatments from “BCE” times to the modern day are discussed in detail. I was relieved to find most of these treatments were stopped or greatly altered, but shocked to discover some are still used today.

I loved the humour, sarcasm and wit found in Quackery. This could have been a dull and dreary wallow through heinous historical practices in the wrong hands, but the authors have sprinkled their own personalities throughout and made a truly entertaining — though still graphically heinous — book.

The pictures in Quackery range from twisted art to “medicine” labels of yore to diagrams detailing procedures. They add a visual depth to the procedures that can at times be difficult to fathom.

Found within these pages are levels of quackery that would baffle Donald, Daffy and Howard alike. Quackery is beautifully illustrated and fascinatingly macabre. Definitely recommended for anyone with even a passing interesting in history, medicine or the creepy and the kooky.

Rating: 5/5

Discover 67 shocking-but-true medical misfires that run the gamut from bizarre to deadly. Like when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When snorting skull moss was a cure for a bloody nose. When consuming mail-order tapeworms was a latter-day fad diet. Or when snake oil salesmen peddled strychnine (used in rat poison) as an aphrodisiac in the '60s. Seamlessly combining macabre humor with hard science and compelling storytelling, Quackery is a visually rich and information-packed exploration of history's most outlandish cures, experiments, and scams.

A humorous book that delves into some of the wacky but true ways that humans have looked to cure their ills. Leeches, mercury, strychnine, and lobotomies are a few of the topics that explore what lengths society has gone in the search for health. (via Goodreads)
I received an eARC of Quackery from Netgalley, courtesy of Workman Publishing Company, in exchange for an honest review.

This book was delightfully horrifying. It's like the book version of Oddities - snarky, ridiculous, and fantastic. The things that humanity has believed to be medicine in the past are astonishing and horrible, but Kang and Pederson made them interesting, and cracked jokes all the way through.

When the first few pages of a book makes your jaw drop in disbelief I figure that's a good sign and this definitely did that! Did you know that a compound of mercury was used as a teething remedy up until the 1920s? Or that beer and crushed garlic was given to induce vomiting after a snake bite? Or that radium was thought to cure "sexual indifference" in women? Or that strychnine was given to men with the same problem? This book is packed full of bits and pieces that had me saying "I had no idea!" and lots of things that made me happy to have been born long after the era of leeches, blistering, and tobacco disinfectant.

This isn't really a book I can imagine sitting down and reading from cover to cover but instead is a fun book to flip through. I think it'd be fantastic to have on hand when someone in your household is sick and being a bit whiny so you could pull it out and inform them what treatment they could have gotten at an earlier time. I imagine that would make the most cranky sick person head back to bed quietly and a bit gratefully.

While the pictures aren't particularly explicit some of the descriptions can be a bit graphic. This isn't really a book I'd want to eat a meal while reading but it was incredibly entertaining. This is a fun book to flip through and full of all kinds of crazy remedies that will make you glad for antibiotics and Advil.

Fascinating read and I highlighted quite a bit in the ebook; however, the constant joking really put me off. There was some extraordinary information about medical practices and the overall wacky treatments that have done throughout history-and then there would be a lame "dad joke". I just felt none of that was needed as it was such an awesome read and the information and pictures were enough to hold my intrigue. Learned quite a bit from this one.

Entertaining and informative!

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley for an honest opinion. I would like to thank Lydia Kang; Nate Pedersen and Workman Publishing Company for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book.


Will post to Amazon once this book is published.

While reading this book, I had to keep reminding myself that the practices and methods discussed weren't just a product of the authors' imaginations but were actual "treatments" once thought to cure problems ranging from bloody noses to babies who wouldn't stop crying. Opium to treat vision problems? Strychnine as an aphrodisiac? Mercury to soothe babies' teething pain? They're all here … and a lot more that will leave most readers shaking their heads.

This book will have you repeatedly gasping "Did they really do that?!" Medicine has come a long way from it's early roots, and this book brings to light all the gory and giggle-inducing side trips it took along the way. Half the time I didn't know whether to laugh out loud at the sheer ridiculousness of some so-called doctors' theories (and the unbelievable gullibility of their patients) or cringe in horror at some of the treatments people were willing to inflict on others and themselves. Anyone reading this book will likely be taking a much closer look at some of the medical advice their own doctors recommend in the future!

I love easy-to-read books about medical history, and this perfectly fulfilled that. It's one of those books that make you try to fit fascinating facts into every conversation you have for the next week. My wife was watching TV beside me as I was reading and I kept stopping to tell her all about the symptoms of mad hatter's disease, where the phrase "blue bloods" comes from, the purpose of tobacco smoke enemas, and what the first penis rings were made of (don't read that part while you're eating).

Oh, and I found a new obsession: cumbersome names for Victorian medical institutions, my favourites from this book being The Pneumatic Institution for Relieving Diseases by Medical Airs and The Institution for Affording Immediate Relief to Persons Apparently Dead From Drowning.

The authors' tone is quite light and jokey, which I liked, but it might irritate if you're looking for a more serious book of medical history. But if you want some interesting facts (and to think twice when you see the new wonder cure-all – looking at you, clean eating/detoxing/juicing/fasting) then this is great.

Well researched information is presented in a way that is both informative and humorous. A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything - elements, plants and soil, slicing, dicing, dousing and draining, creepy crawlies, corpses and the healing power of the human body...this says it all. A very interesting read.

With Quackery, Kang and Pedersen have created an entertaining and engaging tour of medical treatment mishaps and broken promises, mostly produced by pseudo doctors/medical professionals. While not an exhaustive look at every type of treatment available to consumers, the authors present some of the more astonishing and readily available treatments in history, ranging from treatments involving mercury and opium, to radiotherapies and hydrotherapies. Variations of a few of these treatments are in existence today.

Overall, this book serves as a nice introduction to “quack” medical practices of the past (and the present). I did find the humor a bit distracting at times, though I did laugh out loud in parts. The illustrations add to the authors’ descriptions of elixirs and mechanisms used for treatments. A good, quick read for anyone with any interest in medical practices.

Review appears simultaneously on Goodreads, LibraryThing and Litsy via links provided through NetGalley.

Unfortunately, I did not have time to complete and read this book as the galley was only available for 3 days.

No one is safe from the clutches of experts. From financial matters to medical concerns, we must listen to people with high-sounding degrees who know more than we do. Even modern rulers with huge political power have to sometimes put their lives and careers in the hands of people who profess to have specialised knowledge in a particular area of life. Yet we sometimes forget that experts are people trying to figure out life as well as complicated details of their craft. No one knows all they need to know about their area of specialism. This includes the so-called experts.

Quackery is a record of dangerous medical concoctions that were once proclaimed and, in some cases, certified as medicine that would cure common ailments.
For example, the authors state that arsenic compounds were once used as legitimate medicine for syphilis. It was also used extensively in beauty products. Though arsenic did its job (when used in small doses), it was dropped in the 1990s when it was discovered that its toxicity helps cancer thrive within the body.

Also, did you know that surgical removal of ovaries was used to treat hysteria in the nineteenth century? Apparently, a "prominent gynaecologist, Isaac Baker Brown decided that anything that nourishes or gratified a woman's sexual appetite was bad, bad, bad. He recommended and perform clitoris removals and even chopped out his sister's ovaries."

Quackery is a book for medical history lovers as well as for those with a liking for learning odd facts.
The authors did a good job and put in lots of effort to make it funny. The book also contains historical images and is definitely not for the squeamish.

Many thanks to Workman Publishing Company for review copy.

**This review will post at www.rhiannonwriteson.wordpress.com on October 16, 2017**

I'm going to start by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed reading through this book. I laughed and cringed all the way through. It looks as though Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen have an interest in history that closely matches mine, but with a sense of humor, too. Obviously, a sense of humor is much needed when writing a book about all of the ways humans have tried to cure what ails them and most of the ways in which they have failed miserably. Who would have thought bloodletting was a bad idea?

Quackery is available in Kindle ($9.99) and Hardback ($15.60) on Amazon and Hardback ($16.29) from Barnes & Noble. As of now, it is only a pre-order, so by the time we come to the actual release date that may change. Typically I don't add this information so soon in a review, but I feel like, in this case, there may be a lot of readers interested in buying this as a gift for someone else, including me, actually. Not only is the book great to just read it yourself for entertainment value, but it could also be used as a reference, coffee table book, or (in my opinion) great to use as a book club read because it's a good conversation holder.

The pages inside the book are fantastically designed. There are a lot of pictures with great captions and, for a book of this sort, they are absolutely a wonderful pairing with the text. Though much of the subject matter is hilariously horrifying (for lack of a better description), it's an odd comfort to have a photo of some of the cures because, with them, a reader can try and imagine being ill, having someone with a knife come and cut you open for absolutely no good reason. It's frighteningly mad.

The writing, aside from the pictures and subject matter, is frank and to the point. Those of you who are not new to my reviews will realize that I am not a fan of writing that meanders and "lollygags" around. If I have to put a star rating to this book--and for the sake of Amazon and Goodreads, I'm sure I'll have to--I give Quackery a four.