Hans ZinsserRecensioni

This was the first book I read, when I was in high school, but not required for a class, about a narrow but fascinating part of history. From then on history to me has meant people of all kinds, though not so much about generals and kings.
History is interesting when it involves science and philosophy, literature and art, common people and their lives.

Published in 1944, Zinsser leads you through his avenues of interest (research) in hunt of an understanding of Typhus - he christens the endeavor a biography. Splendid. This is the style of book I want to read (well, minus the side comments on the worth of women and other races/ethnicities).

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Chapter X: More about the louse: the need for this chapter will be apparent to those who have entered into the spirit of this biography

Typhus is not dead. It will live on for centuries, and it will continue to break into the open whenever human stupidity and brutality give it a chance.

Zinsser Microbiology is a wonderful textbook on Microbiology. I know it is a bit of a tautology to say so in such a manner, but I cannot express it in any other way. Since it is an advanced course of biology and whatnot, and it is for a college level course, it pulls no punches in showing you organic chemistry and mathematics that pertain to cell populations and stuff like that. You open it up, and there’s a picture of a bacteria culture, next page, BAM!, logarithms in your face. So it demonstrates ATP cycles and other metabolic functions, it shows the physiology of bacteria and fungi and other microorganisms, and it shows some ways to combat those organisms. For instance, it shows the chemical composition of penicillin. It also lists some other chemicals that do various things to bacteria, fungi, protists, viruses and other such things. It is somewhat exhaustive actually, though I suppose it could have gone more in depth…

Although when you speak of depth, it does contain references to further reading at the end of each chapter. So if you feel like reading about Immunology, it has some papers and books for you to peruse. Like the first one it references in that section happens to be Granulomatous Hypersensitivity by W.L. Epstein. It sounds pretty interesting actually.

All in all, this was an excellent resource. The only problem I have with it is not really the fault of the book, but one of the field it covers. Since I imagine that Microbiology has advanced a great deal since this came out, it might be a bit out of date, but what do you expect from a book printed in 1972? I happen to own the fifteenth edition, so it doesn’t even have an ISBN, though I don’t know if that is the case, or if it just isn’t on the database or whatever yet. So although it covers the chemical basis of genetics and stuff like that, I don’t know if it really requires knowing the complete genome of some creatures and other such related things.

I must note this as one of my favorite books ever, not because of its content (though I'm a sucker for plagues), but because of Zinsser's voice and narrative style. This was the first book I read where I noticed the author's effort to communicate his passion, and felt addressed across the decades. I've begun more than one deep friendship based only on our relationship to this book, and to my mind, that is the highest recommendation I can make.

A very witty history of the plague. Loved it!

Zinsser's book, published in 1935, can be read as a modern adaptation of Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy. It provides the reader with a picaresque description of how typhus outbreaks have influenced human history. In the days before antibiotics, he issued a challenge against germs that is still relevant today: "Infectious disease is one of the few genuine adventures left in the world." The lance is rusting in the chimney corner and the dragons are all dead. The war against those ferocious little fellow creatures, which lurk in dark corners and stalk us in the bodies of rats, mice, and all kinds of domestic animals; which fly and crawl with the insects, and which fly and crawl with the birds, is about the only sporting event that has not been negatively impacted by the relentless domestication of a once free-living human species.

Even though this book was written almost a century ago, it hasn't become any less interesting or funny. Hans Zinsser has created an eccentric view of history, rambling about rats, typhus, the Roman Empire, lice, and everything. You can't read it in one sitting, because you'll have to keep taking breaks to calm down from the experience. I liked the book because because I learned so much - this book is a classic microbiology textbook among other things. My favorite foonote was associated with a word I'd never heard -- it said, "If the reader does not know the meaning of this word, that is unfortunate." That gives you an inkling of what is in store for you if you choose to read this book.

Profound, witty, far-ranging, this book utterly defies literary classification, except that it is a contemporary classic. Although its foundation is a “biography” of typhus fever, originally published in 1935, Dr. Zinsser, broadens this theme to include history, customs, places, religions, art and science in a rich style that shows both is own scholarship and his rare human wisdom.

This book has many very positive reviews, and is still in print
after 75 years, so it must have something going for it.
It is certainly well written and an easy read, with flashes of
sardonic humor. Nonetheless I found it slight and discursive
and have no good explanation for its popularity. Perhaps if you
absolutely nothing about epidemic diseases and their continual
ravages and are more concerned with literary style...½

I first read this in high school and was deeply impressed at how disease and history are related to each other.

AMAZON - When "Rats, Lice and History" appeared in 1935, Hans Zinsser was a highly regarded Harvard biologist who had never written about historical events. Although he had published under a pseudonym, virtually all of his previous writings had dealt with infections and immunity and had appeared either in medical and scientific journals or in book format. Today he is best remembered as the author of "Rats, Lice, and History", which gone through multiple editions and remains a masterpiece of science writing for a general readership. To Zinsser, scientific research was high adventure and the investigation of infectious disease, a field of battle. Yet at the same time he maintained a love of literature and philosophy. His goal in "Rats, Lice and History" was to bring science, philosophy, and literature together to establish the importance of disease, and especially epidemic infectious disease, as a major force in human affairs. Zinsser cast his work as the "biography" of a disease. In his view, infectious disease simply represented an attempt of a living organism to survive. From a human perspective, an invading pathogen was abnormal; from the perspective of the pathogen it was perfectly normal. This book is devoted to a discussion of the biology of typhus and history of typhus fever in human affairs. Zinsser begins by pointing out that the louse was the constant companion of human beings. Under certain conditions - failure to wash or to change clothing - lice proliferated. The typhus pathogen was transmitted by rat fleas to human beings, who then transmitted it to other humans and in some strains from human to human. "Rats, Lice and History" is a tour de force. It combines Zinsser's expertise in biology with his broad knowledge of the humanities.