Book Four in the series Meanderings in Medical History contains seventeen essays about various subjects pertaining to medical history. Each vignette was prompted by something that was relevant to my professional or personal experience. The emphasis is on narrative history, stories of physicians at different times and places. As historian Allan Nevins (no relation) once wrote, History should be enjoyed, not endured.

Each chapter in this brief compendium was prompted by something related to the COVID-19 pandemic which, in turn, led me to recall a subject often far removed from where I began. While digressing, I rejuvenated several oldies from my previous twelve books about medical history and added a few newbies. The titles of the last four of my books all included the word meanderings, but this time I’ve chosen to describe these essays as ramblings. I really don’t know why the change. Perhaps COVID effects the brain. In fact, I’m sure it does and this rather disjointed collection is the evidence.

In some respect each of this collection of essays pertains to New Jerseys medical history. Although each chapter stands alone and may differ in style and tone, together they provide a narrative history of medical practice from pre-Colonial times almost to the present. The narrative depicts a kaleidoscope of medical personalities - some heroic, others distinctly not.

These essays about various unrelated medical history subjects were composed over some three decades; some written recently, others published in my previous books. The title word "meandering" suggests randomness, but should not be mistaken for pointlessness for each vignette was prompted by something which at the time seemed relevant to my professional or personal life. The emphasis is on narrative history, stories of physicians at different times and places, for as my famous namesake Professor Allan Nevins once wrote, "history should be enjoyed, not endured."

As with the previous two books in this trilogy of "meanderings", the current collection contains essays about medical practice and the lives of various physicians at different times and places.

Vols. for 1963- include as pt. 2 of the Jan. issue: Medical subject headings.

Travel through history and around the world to learn about the greatest mistakes, blunders, and bloopers of all time! Everyone makes mistakes and nearly everyone likes to know about them, especially when made by someone else! The Worst Blunders of All Time: Shocking Tales from Pandora's Box to Putin's Invasion presents some of our most notable blunders, from the silly to the consequential, from ancient history to current events. It offers the pleasure of Schadenfreude and of an easy-going reading experience, as well as—here and there—some learning opportunities. The reader will see when relatively big things have gone wrong and couldn’t be called back, such as iconic, mythical blunders like Pandora opening that troublesome box and Eve taking her ill-advised bite, to great historical oops such as Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812, as well as some less monumental but nonetheless exemplary mistakes, such as the “Curse of the Bambino,” when the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth—at the time, a pitcher—to the New York Yankees. These and other exemplary oops are presented in a light-hearted way, with some exceptions being catastrophic, current catastrophes, such as Trump’s egregious mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Author David P. Barash will take readers from the tragic to the whimsical, with the latter represented by, for example, “Wrong Way Corrigan,” an early twentieth century aviator who thought he was flying nonstop from New York to California, but, confused by a heavy fog, ended up in Ireland. Pointing out these and other mistakes will be an exercise in Monday morning quarterbacking and 20-20 hindsight. Thus, The Worst Blunders of All Time shall “backstrapolate”: looking in the rear-view mirror at mistakes made by others. The Worst Blunders of All Time is neither an advice book nor a series of cautionary tales. It’s an easy and accessible read, especially useful as therapy in these difficult times. However, its nonetheless accurate and informative, giving rise to some potentially useful take-home messages, keyed to its material. Ideally, we should all benefit from our own mistakes, making lemonade out of lemons, while also following Eleanor Roosevelt’s advice: “Learn from the mistakes of others. You cannot live long enough to make them all yourself.”