A disappointing hack job. Subtitled “A Social History of Rats and Men”, the subject matter is interesting enough, but all the author does is throw together unsubstantiated anecdotes about rat bites, quotations from public health publications, and copyright-free illustrations. A few quotes might give some idea:


“The ferocious Yersina, whose ancestors date back three thousand million years, making them the oldest living things on earth…”


(Well, it’s true that the ancestors of Yersina pestis date back that far. Then again, so do mine.)


“The ranks of the clergy were decimated and priests deserted their flocks; able doctors like Guy de Chauliac died, as did great artists like Ambroglio [sic] and Pietro Lorenzetti. Benvenuto Cellini barely survived an attack of the plague.”


(While this sentence makes it seem like the plague-stricken artists were contemporaries, Benvenuto Cellini dates from the middle of the 16th century, while the others mentioned are from the 14th.)


Apparently as space filler, there’s a whole chapter on the history of Mickey Mouse. To be fair, there are a few items of interest but you have to wade through a lot of verbal sludge to get to them. Not recommended.
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