An annoying hodgepodge of some good writing (start at the second para of pg 116 for the heroic career of Louis Pasteur) after a whack-load of badly organized science talk. We get a couple good stories again, but the promised topic, rabies through the ages and its effect on humans, is chopped up and tossed in amidst too many diversions. Don’t publishers hire editors anymore? Having said all that, one does learn the weird symptoms of 'hydrophobia', and no one - in a million years - could have made up such a bizarre disease.

Fascinating read. Really enjoyed learining about rabies. Had never thought about this virus in the ways Wasik portrayed. Recommend.

A very interesting and well researched book. I would recommend it.

Bill Wasik, a journalist, and Monica Murphy, a veterinarian with a background in public health trace the history of rabies and discuss how it has influenced our culture. They approach the history in chronological order, tracing its appearance in the historical record, discussing what was known about rabies and the attempts to treat the disease. They also consider how rabies may have influenced legends about vampires, werewolves, and zombies. The early chapters illustrate how little was known about the disease before Louis Pasteur proposed the germ theory of disease and why the disease inspired such fear. The authors give a detailed account of how Pasteur and his assistant, Emile Roux, devised a vaccine for rabies, one of the first accomplishments of evidence-based medicine. Since rabies is a zoonosis, that is, a disease transmitted to humans from animals, the authors briefly discuss the threat posed by other zoonoses - something that is done better in books such as Michael B. A. Oldstone's Viruses, Plagues, and History. More interesting is the authors' discussion of the rare cases in which humans have survived rabies, a disease long thought to have a 100% mortality rate in cases in which the disease has penetrated the brain. The authors conclude by examining recent outbreaks, considering the factors that make the disease difficult to eradicate.

Very readable and quick overview of the cultural, historical, and biological aspects of a truly horrible disease.

An awesome book. Not at all stuffy, this book will engage you with a look at rabies throughout history.