Nonfiction books with brilliant opening chapters

Edward Dolnick is the author of Down the Great Unknown, The Rescue Artist, Madness on the Couch, and The Forger's Spell.A former chief science writer at the Boston Globe, he has written for the Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times Magazine, and many other publications.Invited by Powells.com to "[r]ecommend five or more books on a single subject of personal interest or expertise," he came up