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A review by ergative
Rats, Lice, and History: Being a Study in Biography, Which, After Twelve Preliminary Chapters Indispensable for the Preparation of the Lay Reader, Deals With the Life History of Typhus Fever by Hans Zinsser
5.0
This is a remarkable book -- not so much for its accomplishment of what it promises on the cover ('A bacteriologist's classic history of mankind's epic struggle to conquer the scourge of typhus'), but for 1) its insight into the world of medical science in 1934 (when it was written) and 2) the author's delightful rambling personality. We get very little actually about typhus, but quite a lot about the problems with biographers these days (too Freudian); the distinction between art and science with commentary about the silly modernists these days (especially Gertrude Stein); a fond, affectionate description of the life cycle of the louse; chapters upon chapters upon chapters of discussion of histroical epidemics that are not any of them typhus, with chapter headings saying things like, 'This, we promise, is the last serious digression from our main theme'; and then a few chapters later, which still is not yet about typhus, 'The need for this chapter will be apparent to those who have entered into the spirit of this biography'.
Accompanying these more light-hearted commentaries are digressions in which Zinsser makes his political view clear. He never loses an opportunity to comment on how bankers are parasites upon the worker; or, oddly, to criticise the New Deal, and he becomes remarkably eloquent on the horrors of war, and how it is diseases, rather than military strategy, that are often deciding factors.
One does not read this book to learrn about typhus. There actually isn't all that much about typhus in it, and I'm sure a modern book of popular science (a genre which Zinsser despises, for which reason he gives very little information about what is known scientifically about the disease; how discoveries of its spread and action were made, or anything of that sort) would be much more effective in teaching the reader about the disease itself. But from the perspective of 2024, this 90-year-old book is a remarkable window into the personality of a passionate and peevish bacteriologist.
Accompanying these more light-hearted commentaries are digressions in which Zinsser makes his political view clear. He never loses an opportunity to comment on how bankers are parasites upon the worker; or, oddly, to criticise the New Deal, and he becomes remarkably eloquent on the horrors of war, and how it is diseases, rather than military strategy, that are often deciding factors.
One does not read this book to learrn about typhus. There actually isn't all that much about typhus in it, and I'm sure a modern book of popular science (a genre which Zinsser despises, for which reason he gives very little information about what is known scientifically about the disease; how discoveries of its spread and action were made, or anything of that sort) would be much more effective in teaching the reader about the disease itself. But from the perspective of 2024, this 90-year-old book is a remarkable window into the personality of a passionate and peevish bacteriologist.