When most of us think of Charles Lindbergh, we
picture a dashing twenty-five-year-old aviator stepping
out of the Spirit of St. Louis after completing his solo
flight across the Atlantic. What we don't see is the
awkward high school student, who preferred ogling new
gadgets at the hardware store to watching girls walk by
in their summer dresses. Sure, Lindbergh's unique
mindset invented the pre-flight checklist, but his
obsession with order also led him to demand that his
wife and three German mistresses account for all their
household expenditures in detailed ledgers. Lucky
Lindy is just one of several American icons whom Joshua
Kendall puts on the psychologist's couch in AMERICA'S
OBSESSIVES. In this fascinating look at the arc of
American history through the lens of compulsive
behavior, he shows how some of our nation's greatest
achievements-from the Declaration of Independence to the
invention of the iPhone-have roots in the
disappointments and frustrations of early
childhood. Starting with the obsessive natures of
some of Silicon Valley's titans, including Steve Jobs,
Kendall moves on to profile seven iconic figures, such
as founding father Thomas Jefferson, licentious
librarian Melvil Dewey, condiment kingpin H. J. Heinz,
slugger Ted Williams, and Estee Lauder. This last
personality was so obsessed with touching other women's
faces that she transformed her compulsion into a
multibillion-dollar cosmetics
corporation. Entertaining and instructive, Kendall
offers up a few scoops along the way: Little do most
Americans know that Charles Lindbergh, under the alias
Clark Kent, sired seven children with his three German
"wives." As Lindbergh's daughter Reeve told Kendall,
"Now I know why he was gone so much. I also understand
why he was delighted when I was learning
German."
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