Rats, Lice, and History: A Chronicle of Pestilence and Plagues - Hardcover

Zinsser, Hans

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1884822479 ISBN 13: 9781884822476

Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal, 1996

Synopsis

The classic chronicle of the impact disease and plagues have had on history and society over the past half-millennium. Intriguingly fascinating and entertaining reading for anyone who is interested in how society copes with catastrophe and pain. Relevant today in face of the worldwide medical calamity of AIDS. Continuously in print since its first publication in 1934, with over 75 printings.

About this title

About the Author

Hans Zinsser (1878-1940) received his doctorate at Columbia University and also was an instructor of bacteriology at Columbia University. Throughout his career he was also a professor at Stanford University as well as Harvard University. His scientific work focused on bacteriology and immunology and he is greatly associated with Brill's disease as well as typhus.

Review

"Zinsser's account of lice and men remains a delight. Written in 1935 as a latter-day variation on Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Zinsser's book gives a picaresque account of how the history of the world has been shaped by epidemics of louseborne typhus.....Zinnser's romp through the ancient and modern worlds describes how epidemics devastated the Byzantines under Justinian, put Charles V atop the Holy Roman Empire, stopped the Turks at the Carpathians, and turned Napolean's Grand Armée back from Moscow."

—Gerald Weissmann, Emerging Infectious Diseases

"This book... is listed among the best sellers. The style is delightful, and the subject matter very interesting... [It gives an] account of man's defeats and victories against epidemics... Those who have read Dr. Zinsser's articles will enjoy this book, and to otehrs it will be a pleasant surprise."

—Elizabeth Hard, The American Journal of Nursing

"No one who buys this book will feel cheated."

—H. M. Parshley, Nation

"This book will surely be studied with great interest by the lay reader... [I]t presents "a fascinating blend of scientific and historical research, humour, and stimulating opinion."

—The British Medical Journal

“I had the fun of editing Hans’s book Rats, Lice and History, that unique account of what infectious diseases had done to change the fate of nations.”

—Edward Weeks, The Atlantic

Edition details

• Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1884822479
• ISBN 13: 9781884822476
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320