Laurie Endicott Thomas has worked as an editor in various aspects of medical publishing for more than 25 years. She is the author of four books:
Not Trivial: How Studying the Traditional Liberal Arts Can Set You Free explains what has gone wrong in the public schools in the United States. For many years, young women with little more than a primary school education and equipped with nothing but The New England Primer and the Bible had great success in teaching reading children to read. Yet today, millions of people did not learn to read in school, even though those schools were staffed by college educated teachers equipped with an extensive library of materials. What went wrong? In Not Trivial, Laurie Endicott Thomas explains that the public school curriculum has been designed for failure. She provides a clear roadmap for how teachers and parents can take back control of education.
Most Americans have trouble remembering which type of diabetes is which. French people have no such confusion. They use the term thin diabetes (diabète maigre) to refer to the catastrophic, incurable disease that results from failure of the pancreas. They use the term fat diabetes (diabète gras) to refer to the milder, reversible problem that is associated with being at least a little bit overweight. In Thin Diabetes, Fat Diabetes: Prevent Type 1, Cure Type 2, Thomas explains what is going on in the body of someone with diabetes, and why a high-carbohydrate diet is important for people with any type of diabetes mellitus.
When you want information about vaccination, whom should you trust, your family doctor or that guy who sells overpriced vitamins and untested herbal supplements over the Internet? In No More Measles! The Truth About Vaccines and Your Health, Laurie Endicott Thomas reframes the discussion about vaccines. Rather than just nagging people in the United States to vaccinate their children, we should be working at eradicating the vaccine-preventable diseases worldwide. Once measles, mumps, and rubella are extinct, the need for the MMR vaccine will drop to zero, overnight.
For decades, some psychologists and educators have been urging us to boost children’s self-esteem at all costs. Yet all of the world’s great philosophical and religious traditions warn us that foolish pride is dangerous. So it is no wonder that we are now hearing about an epidemic of narcissism. In Don’t Feed the Narcissists! The Mythology and Science of Mental Health, Laurie Endicott Thomas explains what mental illness is, and how psychiatrists diagnose and treat it. She also provides a simple explanation of the problem of narcissism and offers a promising approach to solving the problem.