BOOK REVIEW
The best specimen of a tyrant: the ambitious Dr. Abraham Van Norstrand and the Wisconsin Insane Hospital by Thomas Doherty
In ten words or less: Rattling good tale about a greed self-aggrandizing opportunist.
Review: Dr. Abraham Van Norstrand moved west to seek his fortune. During the civil war he ran one of the army’s biggest hospitals, while making money in the lucrative whiskey trade. When he returned to Wisconsin after the war, he ran the Wisconsin Insane Hospital—and provided jobs for relatives, got profits from supplying the hospital with tainted foods from a store in which he was secretly a partner.
Much of the book is based on memoirs he wrote late in his life, and which were not particularly truthful, as the author proves.
Why bother? The author has written short stories, in addition to history, and this book has the all the intrigue of a good novel. Readers of Eric Larsen and Simon Winchester would enjoy this book.
In ten words or less: Rattling good tale about a greed self-aggrandizing opportunist.
Review: Dr. Abraham Van Norstrand moved west to seek his fortune. During the civil war he ran one of the army’s biggest hospitals, while making money in the lucrative whiskey trade. When he returned to Wisconsin after the war, he ran the Wisconsin Insane Hospital—and provided jobs for relatives, got profits from supplying the hospital with tainted foods from a store in which he was secretly a partner.
Much of the book is based on memoirs he wrote late in his life, and which were not particularly truthful, as the author proves.
Why bother? The author has written short stories, in addition to history, and this book has the all the intrigue of a good novel. Readers of Eric Larsen and Simon Winchester would enjoy this book.
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