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Rats, Lice, and History: A Chronicle of Pestilence and Plagues 1st Edition

by
Hans Zinsser (Author)
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Hans Zinsser (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 34 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 076-8821224790
ISBN-10: 1884822479
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal; 1st edition (January 3, 1996)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1884822479
  • ISBN-13: 978-1884822476
  • Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.2 x 8.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #777,102 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsOne of the Best Biographies of the 20th Century
By ealovitt HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER on February 27, 2001
Format: Paperback
The copy of "Rats, Lice, and History" that I own was published in 1963, and this was the 33rd time it had been reissued since first appearing in 1934. I can't imagine Dr. Zinsser's grumpily discursive, masterfully written, and ultimately profound biography of typhus fever ever going completely out of print. Stylistically the only work I can compare it to is Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". Where Gibbon occasionally dipped his pen in vinegar and excoriated the Christians, Zinsser dips his pen in hydrochloric acid and savages all of the quaint human customs that have kept Typhus alive and thriving. He shows much more affectionate sympathy for the louse than he does for the General or the Politician. Witness:
"The louse shares with us the misfortune of being prey to the typhus virus. If lice can dread, the nightmare of their lives is the fear of some day inhabiting an infected rat or human being. For the host may survive; but the ill-starred louse that sticks his haustellum through an infected skin, and imbibes the loathsome virus with his nourishment, is doomed beyond succor. In eight days he sickens, in ten days he is 'in extremis', on the eleventh or twelfth his tiny body turns red with blood extravasated from his bowel, and he gives up his little ghost."
In the interests of research, Zinsser carried pill boxes of lice under his socks for weeks at a time before taking "advantage of them for scientific purposes." He is not able to tear himself away from these little creatures and address the true subject of his biography, i.e. the typhus virus, until Chapter 12!Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsThe most fun you can have reading about typhus!
By R. Kelly Wagner on November 9, 2003
Format: Paperback
First let me say that after you read this book, you should then read Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, which is its logical successor.
Second: this book was written in the 1930's. This is before much of what we know about modern antibiotics was discovered - but that's one of the reasons you should read it: a reminder of just how recent modern medicine is, and how much power disease still has over us. This book is a stark reminder of how much hygiene has done to lengthen our lifespan, too - improving water supplies and eliminating rats from most households has done as much or more to extend the human lifespan as all the antibiotics we've invented.
Zinsser's list of what historical battles would have ended completely differently had not epidemic disease swept through one or another army is also chilling reading. Much of what we think of as inevitable human superiority was actually the work of bacteria, who didn't really care about our affairs. But despite the gloomy topic, as my title says, this book is the most fun you can possibly have while reading about epidemics. His humor is dry and biting - the deadpan recital of damages here, of misguided so-called scientists there... the editorial review above gives a couple such examples. The entire book is a fascinating read.
Some of the writing assumes that all readers were educated under an aristocratic university system, so that there are bits thrown in in Latin and Greek, not to mention French and other modern languages. The book can be read despite those, however. It might be tough going for high school students or even university undergrads, but would be a terrific addition to a history research paper, worth the slog for anyone willing to try it. And for those who have medicine and/or biology as an amateur interest, this is must reading.
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5.0 out of 5 starsTerrific window on past
By George on May 28, 1998
Format: Hardcover
I'd read this maybe 30 years ago and thought it was great then (I was about 15, so it's readable for younger people). It has survived the test of time. Readers have to remember that this was one of the first books written by a scientist for a lay audience, and that such "slumming" by scientists was looked down on by colleagues (an attitude that survived well into the '60s).
Sure, there are much better histories of plague & disease around now & obviously with more up to date information. Zinsser's book, though, is great for it's historical value--a window on a period when writers could drop greek and french phrases untranslated into their books and assume readers would know (irritating, yes, but I still enjoyed it). It also stands on it's own for the information, though I'd also read something more current for that.
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5.0 out of 5 starsZinsser gave me a lifetime love for biology because of this.
By A Customer on October 21, 1999
Format: Hardcover
The book is a private conversation between the reader and the author. Zinsser presents a whole world in his seemingly unrelated first chapters' musings, but lays the groundwork for understanding his view of a world laid to waste by a humble bacterium. I have loved this book for at least 25 years, and have loaned and lost any number of copies to dear thieving friends.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA lucid, accurate, and surprsingly funny look at plague.
By A Customer on July 5, 1996
Format: Paperback
Zinsser's book is hysterical (as well as an extraordinarily scholarly, lucid and well-written) review of plagues through history. It is also extremely interesting from the standpoint of science, as Zinsser speculates on certain bacteria and epidemiologies IN 1934. Zinsser's probably politically-incorrect comments about how No Wonder There Is So Much Jew-Baiting - The Hebrew God was a Particularly Vicious and Vengeful Deity Who Went About Smiting Enemies of the Jews in the Hinder Regions, and the Jews Weren't Such Lilies In Their Dealings With Others Anyway (my paraphrase, mostly, the "they weren't such lilies" is a direct quote) was, well, really funny. Zinsser's whole irreverant and chatty tone about such a deadly topic makes this book such a good read. He's also delightfully snotty sometimes ("saprophyte" is identified by a footnote, the text of which reads: "if the reader does not know what this means, then that is too bad."). The whole first quarter of the book, in which he debates with a literary colleague his right to write a "biography" of a disease is wonderful - an argument over whether artists should write about science and whether scientists should profess to know enough about the humanities to write "literature." When he discusses some of Kepler's erroneous assumptions about spontaneous generation - in a long, serious historical account on the evolution of "origin of life" theories, he adds a comment in the footnotes that reads: "It is to Kepler's credit, however, that - although one of the most eminent physicists of all time - he never wrote a book on God and the Universe."

I think there's be a lot more people in Science if Zinsser had written a major's intro bio text. Good heavens! What would he have had to say about DNA?? Oh, and the history of typhus (the main point of the book) is excellent, too. This has got to be one of the most delightful reads in microbiology.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 starsI assumed that I would truly enjoy reading this classic

As an infectious diseases specialist, I assumed that I would truly enjoy reading this classic. Had the author continued to write as he did in the early part of the book, I would... Read more

Published 1 month ago by Daniel Shapiro
5.0 out of 5 starsA classic. Well worth reading.

A classic. Well worth reading.

Published 2 months ago by Tabbytail
5.0 out of 5 starsThe first and best

My all-time favorite history-and-disease book. First read it as a teen many many years ago, and it probably played a part in focusing my interest in biology. Read more

Published 12 months ago by SueV
5.0 out of 5 starsIlness is not a punishment

Studying it and taking a class on the Sociology of health and Illness really helped me understand the nature of disease. I wrote a paper for college on this book and received a 98!

Published 13 months ago by TR
5.0 out of 5 starsClassic

This is a must read for anyone who is interested in science or history.

Published 21 months ago by CWatson
5.0 out of 5 starsEnlightening

Not every book leaves you wiser than when you began. This one does. It makes sense out of the bits and pieces of history that are often neglected by the historians.

Published on November 30, 2013 by Elizabeth A. Alvord
5.0 out of 5 starsA Compelling Read

I love this book! Originally published in 1934, it has withstood the test of time. Clearly, the writer loves his subject. Read more

Published on November 4, 2013 by S.Challis
5.0 out of 5 starsRats, Lice & History vs. Guns, Germs & Steel: Rats win!

This book, written by microbiologist Hans Zinsser in 1934, was a delight to read, if you can call reading about war, plague, and epidemics a delight. Read more

Published on November 24, 2012 by Steve G
5.0 out of 5 starsOne terrific book

This book should be part of every American's education, along with its companion masterpiece, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds. Read more

Published on March 24, 2012 by Geoff Puterbaugh
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat book

Wonderful treatment of the subject, refreshing and accurate, I wish he had written more. A singular book, whimsical and scientific at the same time.

Published on February 14, 2012 by rawhide1960

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