Special Features
- General Article: Online Forum
- Further Reading: Related Books and Websites
- Timeline: Treatments for Mental Illness
- Bonus Video: Original Interview: Angelene Forester
- Preview: The Lobotomist Preview
- Primary Resources: Bedlam 1946
In the 1940s Dr. Walter Freeman gained fame for perfecting the lobotomy, then hailed as a miracle cure for the severely mentally ill. But within a few years, lobotomy was labeled one of the most barbaric mistakes of modern medicine.
Series Blog
From the Times to the Tomes: History Evolving
In Phillip Roth’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel American Pastoral he remarks of history, “People think of history in the long term, but history, in fact, is a very sudden thing.”
Grand Coulee Dam
The contradictory history of a dam that became a statement of American power and prestige.
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The Iron Road
Begun during the Civil War, the transcontinental railroad employed 20,000 men, mostly immigrants, who built the iron road with their bare hands.
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The Pill
The story behind the development of the oral contraceptive that put women in control of birth control.
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Edison's Miracle of Light
"The Wizard of Menlo Park," Inventor Thomas Edison, built the first practical light bulb and revolutionized the world.
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Big Dream, Small Screen
A Utah farm boy builds a prototype for a television, but is thwarted by movie studio executives wanting to control the technology.
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Transcontinental Railroad
The remarkable story of how a railroad was built connecting California to the East.
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Partners of the Heart
At the height of segregation, an unlikely alliance between a black medical genius and a white surgeon led to a pioneering medical breakthrough.
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