Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science
Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars A quick entertaining read
First, this book can easily be read in one or two sittings, that being said, it’s not worth the hardcover $16 list price. Pick up a copy here for a couple bucks and all is well. Otherwise, i found this book to be a page turner. The author has a great “story telling” writing style. This book is a little step back in time, fortean in nature, and educational all in one short, well illustrated book.
5 Stars Understand, Please, that this is a Kids’ Book!
It’s only about a half-hour’s worth of reading for an adult, and it’s written in language that most adults will find smarmy. Nevertheless, the introduction this book offers to the current state of knowledge about the human brain may well come as news to many adult readers, and the life story of the man Phineas Gage is fascinating. In 1848, Gage had a massive iron bar shot straight through his head in an accident with blasting powder. The bar entered through his mouth and existed through the top of his skull, all in an instant, and yet Gage lived. Any young reader will find this story vivid enough to keep her/his attention focused on the science that Gage’s misfortune stimulated. I’m not a teacher, so my guess may be wrong, but I’d say this book is especially suitable to junior high readers.
You’ll find mention of Gage in a far more mature piece of writing - “Soul Made Flesh” by Carl Zimmer - which narrates the life-work of the 17th C Englishman, Thomas Willis, who first convinced at least some people that the brain was not merely a blob but in fact the seat of consciousness. I recommend that book heartily/brainily to all readers who enjoy the history of science. I’d also urge people with serious scientific interests to learn about the “Brainbow” project underway at the Harvard Center for Brain Science, directed by my smartest friend, Dr. Joshua Sanes.
5 Stars The leading edge of brain science history
John Fleischman once again brings Phineas Gage to the pages of brain science history with his engaging “Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story about Brain Science.”
A frequent writer for Discover, Muse, and Air and Space Smithsonian magazines, Fleischman flexes his narrative voice as well as his scientific knowledge in this book for older children and young adult readers. The combination works wonderfully, making this almost a page-turning read. At first I was distracted by Fleischman’s use of both past and present tense voices. What I decided was his use of present tense in telling Phineas’s story brings immediacy to the narrative–a you-are-there type of storytelling, while past tense relates the scientific story preceding and following the events in Phineas’s life.
One reviewer tells us that all medical and most science students know the story of Phineas Gage because of his importance in studies in brain knowledge. So what is the story of Phineas’s brain? In 1848 while leading his gang of railroad workers, Phineas suffered a terrible accident: his three-foot tamping iron was shot through his head, entering under his jaw and exiting through his frontal lobe. Fleischman asks the reader: Was he lucky or unlucky? You see, Phineas lived eleven and one-half more years, but everyone who knew him agreed this was no longer Phineas Gage. His personality changed.
While Fleischman relates Phineas’s story, he underscores everything with what doctors knew then about brain science in particular, and medicine in general. One photograph shows a group of doctors in street clothes standing around an operating table with a patient on it. No one knew about germs at that time.
The most fascinating part of the book is how easily Fleischman weaves information about the brain, the story of brain science development, and various conclusions and theories made and discarded or enhanced. This is clearly a science book dressed out in a fantastic, but true story.
I particularly was eager to read this book because my school placed this book as required reading for sixth grade this summer. Our reading list came about this way: one teacher created a list of all suggested books for additional reading found at the end of chapters in one of the textbooks. All are young adult books. I read reviews for all the books and whittled a list of 60-80 titles to about 15. We chose Phineas as required because of our principal, a former high school science teacher. She presented information about brain science at a pre-school workshop for teachers. The staff was fascinated, so I thought this kind of knowledge would benefit students as well. Add the bizarre story of Phineas’s accident and this book should be a winner.
Phineas’s skull and tamping rod are on permanent display at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
3 Stars Science buffs will love this one.
Phineas Gage survived for about 10 years after a 13-pound iron rod shot through his brain while he was working on building a railroad. The events of September 13, 1848 changed not only Gage’s life, but the course of brain science as well.
The author mixes accounts of Gage’s life before and after the accident with scientific explanations. Illustrations such as photographs, drawings, and diagrams help explain Gage’s life and how the brain works.
5 Stars Cool Facts
The book is based on real life events, and the author does a great job in explaining them. I bought the book so I could use it as an example for my presentation on traumatic brain injuries; I got an A!!!
Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science
Filed under: Mental Health Book Reviews