Hans Zinsser

An exploration of the scourge of plague and disease and its impact on society and history.

A Chronicle of Disease, Plagues, and Pestilence

Rats, Lice and History

Originally published: Boston: Printed and Pub. for the Atlantic Monthly Press by Little, Brown, and Company, 1935.

As I Remember Him, the Biography of R. S.

A laboratory course in serum study; bacteriology 208, being a series of ex

Joseph Gardner Hopkins

Reuben Ottenberg

Bacteriology 208, Being a Series of Experiments and Diagnostic Tests in Immunology Carried Out in an Optional Course Given to Medical and Graduate Students in the Department of Bacteriology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York

A Laboratory Course in Serum Study

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–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

Stanhope Bayne-Jones

The Applicaion of Bacteriology and Immunology to the Etiology, Diagnosis, Specific Therapy and Prevention of Infectious Diseases for Students and Practitioners of Medicine and Public Health

A Textbook of Bacteriology

The Application of Bacteriology and Immunology to the Etiology, Diagnosis, Specific Therapy and Prevention of Infectious Diseases for Students and Practitioners of Medicine and Public Health

A Textbook of Bacteriology, with a Section on Pathogenic Protozoa

Microbiology

This is a new release of the original 1940 edition.

The Biography of R. S.

As I Remember Him

Allen Grimshaw

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�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

Hans Zinsser

About

Books

Join the club