title: The Arts of Deception: Playing with Fraud in the Age of Barnum
author:  James W. Cook 
description: Cook has written a fascinating analysis of mass entertainment in 19th-century America, with the all-time master of marketing ploys as one of the main players. P.T. Barnum, the "Prince of Humbug," is the most prominent figure in a series of slippery presentations that captured the imagination (and the paid attendance) of unsuspecting audiences. Beginning with the Joice Heath story in 1835, Barnum used a combination of exaggeration, trickery, clever rumor-spreading, and manipulation of the press to exhibit Heath as the 161-year-old former slave of George Washington's father and therefore "the first person who put clothes on the unconscious infant," George. When after Heath's death it became clear that she was hardly 80 years old, Barnum even managed to profit from the embarrassment by charging a 50-cent entrance fee to Heath's public autopsy. This story is a model for the several other melodramatic mass-entertainment hoaxes described in the book. Despite the seeming lightness of the topic, this is essentially a scholarly book. Cook analyzes the social milieu and the audiences, as well as the phenomenon of entertainment fraud itself, which he sees as "one of the most pervasive currents" in 19th-century popular culture. Recommended for public and academic libraries. Bonnie Collier, Yale Law Lib. <br />Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  ACT OF  
  DECEPTION
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Also by John Bishop
  
  Act of Murder
  
  Act of Revenge
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ACT OF  
  DECEPTION
  
  A DOC BRADY MYSTERY
  
  John Bishop, MD
  
  MANTID PRESS
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Act of Deception  
  A Doc Brady Mystery  
  Copyright © 2020 by John Bishop. All rights reserved.
  
  ISBN: 978-1-7342511-2-8 (paperback)  
  ISBN: 978-1-7342511-3-5 (eBook)  
  Published by Mantid Press
  
  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
  or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical,
  photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without written permission from the
  publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
  
  This is a work of the imagination in its entirety. All names, settings,
  incidents, and dialogue have been invented, and when real places, products,
  and public figures are mentioned in the story, they are used fictionally and
  without any claim of endorsement or affiliation. Any resemblance between the
  characters in the novel and real