Gail Jarrow

"After millions of people died during World War I and from the 1918 influenza pandemic, the popularity of spiritualism soared. Desperate to communicate with their dead loved ones, the bereaved fell prey to extortion by fraudulent mediums and fortune-tellers. But magician Harry Houdini wasn't fooled. He recognized the scammers' methods as no more than conjurer tricks. Angered by the way people were exploited, Houdini set out to expose the ghost hoaxes....

James Abram Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, was assassinated when he was shot by Charles Guiteau in July 1881, less than four months after he was elected president. But Garfield didn't actually die until 80 days later. In this page-turner, award-winning author Gail Jarrow delves into the fascinating story of the relationship between Garfield and Guiteau, and relates the gruesome details of Garfield's slow and agonizing death. She...

Describes the panic induced when listeners believed Orson Welles' radio broadcast of "The War of the Worlds" to be news of an alien invasion, discussing the context in which the broadcast was aired and why it was so convincing.

One hundred years ago, a mysterious and alarming illness spread across America's South, striking tens of thousands of victims. No one knew what caused it or how to treat it. People were left weak, disfigured, insane, and in some cases, dead.
Award-winning science and history writer Gail Jarrow tracks this disease, commonly known as pellagra, and highlights how doctors, scientists, and public health officials finally defeated it. Illustrated...

In March 1900, San Francisco's health department investigated a strange and horrible death in Chinatown. A man had died of bubonic plague, one of the world's deadliest diseases. But how could that be possible? Bubonic Panic tells the true story of America's first plague epidemic--the public health doctors who desperately fought to end it, the political leaders who tried to keep it hidden, and the brave scientists who uncovered the plague's secrets....

"...explores the science and grisly history of U.S. Civil War medicine, using actual medical cases and first-person accounts by soldiers, doctors, and nurses. The Civil War took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans and left countless others with disabling wounds and chronic illnesses. Bullets and artillery shells shattered soldiers' bodies, while microbes and parasites killed twice as many men as did the battles. Yet from this tragic four-year...

Describes the contributions made to the Union's efforts in the Civil War by Thaddeus Lowe and a corps of hot air balloonists who helped spy on the Confederate army, despite becoming targets in the war themselves.