Rats, Lice and History

Rats, Lice and History is a 1935 popular science book by bacteriologist Hans Zinsser on the subject of typhus, a disease on which he performed significant research. He frames the book as a "biography" of typhus, tracing its destructive path since the earliest civilizations. He argues that infectious diseases like typhus have had an inordinate but underappreciated impact on the course of human history, as he expresses in this excerpt:

Soldiers have rarely won wars. They more often mop up after the barrage of epidemics. And typhus, with its brothers and sisters—plague, cholera, typhoid, dysentery—has decided more campaigns than Caesar, Hannibal, Napoleon, and the inspectors general of history. The epidemics get the blame for defeat, the generals get the credit for victory. It ought to be the other way around.

Several later works, including Plagues and Peoples and Guns, Germs and Steel, echoed this idea.

Written for a lay audience, Rats, Lice and History showcased Zinsser's wry and literate style. The book was well received by readers, reaching the top ten in nonfiction bestsellers, and has since gone through many editions.