Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus

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Overview

An engrossing and lively history of the fearsome and mythologized virus

In the tradition of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Great Influenza, journalist Bill Wasik and veterinarian Monica Murphy chart the history, science, and cultural mythology of rabies. In the absence of vaccination— as was true for thousands of years, until the late nineteenth century—the rabies virus caused brain infections with a nearly 100 percent fatality rate, both in animals and humans, and the suffering it inflicted became the stuff of legend.

The transmission of the virus—often from rabid dog to man—reawakened a primal fear of wild animals, and the illness’s violent symptoms spoke directly to mankind’s fear of the beast within. The cultural response was to create fictional embodiments of those anxieties—ravenous wolfmen, bloodsucking vampires, and armies of mindless zombies.

From the myth of Actaeon to Saint Hubert, from the laboratories of the heroic and pioneering Louis Pasteur to a journalistic investigation into the madness that has gripped modern Bali, Rabid is a fresh, fascinating, and often wildly entertaining look at one of the world’s most misunderstood viruses.

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What People Are Saying

From the Publisher

“A searing narrative.”
—The New York Times

“In this keen and exceptionally well-written book, rife with surprises, narrative suspense and a steady flow of expansive insights, ‘the world’s most diabolical virus’ conquers the unsuspecting reader’s imaginative nervous system. . . . A smart, unsettling, and strangely stirring piece of work.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“Fascinating. . . . Wasik and Murphy chronicle more than two millennia of myths and discoveries about rabies and the animals that transmit it, including dogs, bats and raccoons.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“Rabid delivers the drama of Louis Pasteur’s courageous work developing the rabies vaccine at the same time it details the disease’s place in our cultural history, taking us from Homer to the Bronte sisters to Zora Neale Hurston to Richard Matheson. . . . All along the book’s prose and pace shine—the book is as fast as the virus is slow.”
—The Seattle Times

“A very readable, fascinating account of a terrifying disease….Wasik and Murphy grippingly trace the cultural history of the disease. . . . Rabid reminds us that the disease is a chilling, persistent reminder of our own animal connections, and of the simple fact that humans don’t call all of the shots.”
—The Boston Globe

“Compelling. . . . Murphy and Wasik give life, context and understanding to the terrifying disease. Like the virus itself, this fascinating book moves quickly, exploring both the marginalized status and deadly nature of the virus. And as the authors trace the influence of rabies through history, Rabid becomes nearly impossible to put down.”
—New Scientist

“An elegant exploration of the science behind one of the most horrible way to die.”
—Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail

“This book is not for the squeamish. Yet those who are fascinated by how viruses attack the body, by the history of vaccination and by physicians’ efforts to save the most desperately ill patients will want to read it. There is also a happy ending: scientists are working to harness rabies as a potent drug delivery vehicle.”
—Scientific American

“[Wasik and Murphy] offer an in-depth look at a disease so insidious that it even turns our best friends—dogs—against us. The pair convincingly link the history of rabies…with the history of man’s fear of nature and the unknown, and our own latent capacity for beastliness.”
—The Daily Beast

“Thrilling, smart, and devilishly entertaining, Rabid is one of those books that changes your sense of history—and reminds us how much our human story has been shaped by the viruses that live among us.”
—Steven Johnson, author of The Ghost Map

“Rabies has always been as much metaphor as disease, making it an excellent subject for cultural history. . . . As Wasik and Murphy document . . . the horror of rabies has been with us since the beginning of human civilization.”
—Bookforum

“Funny and spry. . . . It’s a rare pleasure to read a nonfiction book by authors who research like academics but write like journalists.”
—Alice Gregory, n+1

“Readable, fascinating, informative, and occasionally gruesome, this is highly recommended for anyone interested in medical history or the cultural history of disease.”
—Library Journal (starred review)

“Take Bill Wasik, one of our most perceptive journalistic storytellers, have him join forces with Monica Murphy, scholar of public health, and you end up with this erudite, true-life creep show of a book. It turns out that the rabies virus is a good bit more fascinating and at least as frightening as any of those blood-thirsty monsters that have stalked our fairy tales, multiplexes, and dreams.”
—Donovan Hohn, author of Moby Duck

“Ambitious and smart.”
—Publisher’s Weekly

“Terrible virus, fascinating history in Rabid.”
—NPR

“As entertaining as they are on rabies in culture, the authors also eruditely report on medicine and public health issues through history, from ancient Assyria to Bali to Manhattan in the last five years, showing that while the disease may be contained, it may never be fully conquered. Surprisingly fun reading about a fascinating malady.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“The ultimate weird dad book.”
—Very Short List

“The rabies virus is a microscopic particle of genes and proteins. And yet it has cast a fearful shadow over all of human history. Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy have produced an eerily elegant meditation on disease and madness, dogs and vampires. It's as infectious as its subject.”
—Carl Zimmer, NPR contributor and author of Parasite Rex

“A fun read, rivaling a Stephen King novel for page-turning thrills.”
—The Awl

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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Only two or three Americans die each year from rabies, almost all of them from infections received overseas, but not even effective vaccines have lessened our fear of this worldwide scourge. There is ample justification for this horror: For four full millennia, rabies has attacked its victims, animals and humans alike, killing them after it drives them mad. Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy's Rabid walks cautious readers through the haunting history of this virus, describing how its unpredictable outbreaks infused terror into dark forests, betrayed man's best friend, and even helped implant myths and legends of walking dead zombies and bloodsucking vampires. A well-researched catharsis of primal fears.

The Washington Post

…a fascinating cultural history by husband-and-wife team Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy.
—Timothy R. Smith

Publishers Weekly

Rabies has not only wreaked havoc for 4,000 years on man and his best friend but also mirrors the history of medicine while generating vampire images that still frighten and fascinate us. In this ambitious and smart history of the virus, Wired senior editor Waski (And Then There’s This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture) and public health and veterinary expert Murphy (who are husband and wife) start with the Greeks and their love-hate relationship with their hounds, move to the Middle Ages—when Islamic scholars made the first real advances in understanding the disease—and barrel through to the revolutionary “germ theory” discoveries of the late 19th century. The authors track how science tried to tame the scourge, with its ravaging neurological effects. Yet the rare tales of modern survivors only underscore that, despite the existence of treatment through a series of injections, we’re at a stalemate in conquering rabies. Look for delightful detours into cultural manifestations of our fear of rabies, including a survey of vampire, werewolf, and zombie literature and films— from Charlotte Brontë to Anne Rice, and right up to the Twilight series. Agent: Tina Bennett, Janklow & Nesbit. (July)

Library Journal

Rabies strikes terror into the hearts of humankind like few other diseases because of the way it can turn a beloved pet (or person) into a foaming, frenzied beast who will suffer an agonizing death in nearly 100 percent of cases. Many people grew up with haunting images of Old Yeller, but, as husband-and-wife team Wasik (senior editor, Wired; And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture) and Murphy, a veterinarian, demonstrate, the fear of rabies dates back to ancient times. They place the world's deadliest virus in its historical and cultural context with a scientifically sound and compelling history that begins in ancient Mesopotamia and ends in 21st-century Bali. Highlights include chapters on Louis Pasteur, who developed the first rabies vaccine, and the few humans who have survived rabies infection. The authors also link rabies to myths and legends, including werewolves, vampires, and witches, and discuss rabies in literature and humankind's long, close relationship with dogs. VERDICT Readable, fascinating, informative, and occasionally gruesome, this is highly recommended for anyone interested in medical history or the cultural history of disease. [See Prepub Alert, 1/8/12.]—Janet A. Crum, City of Hope Lib., Duarte, CA

Library Journal

The source of a brain infection that causes horrid symptoms and is nearly always fatal, rabies has been feared through the ages. Here Wired senior editor Wasik departs from his bailiwick to join wife Murphy, who has degrees in public health and veterinary medicine, to offer a cultural history of the disease—the myths it engendered and how it reflects our fear of the wild both within us and outside us. In-house interest is sparking; watch.

Kirkus Reviews

From a husband-and-wife team, a literate look at the history of one of humankind's oldest and most frightening scourges. Wired senior editor Wasik (And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture, 2009) and veterinarian Murphy survey literature, cultural history and medical science to tell the story of a disease that has plagued humans wherever they have attracted the company of dogs and other feral animals. Rabies infects not only the bodies of the unfortunate few who have contracted the disease, but also more generally, our fears and imagination. The authors plausibly postulate that the "rage" that made Hector such a terrifying enemy in the Iliad was modeled on rabies; lyssa, the word that describes Hector's savagery, is the same term Greeks used to describe rabid dogs. So what makes rabid animals so mad? According to Wasik and Murphy, rabies is a slow-working virus that almost uniquely affects the nerves. Once in the brain, it inhibits the autonomic nervous system and manifests in the victim's foaming at the mouth and hydrophobia (aversion to water). According to the authors, rabies, for which there was no protection or cure until Louis Pasteur's vaccine of the 1880s, is the primary reason for humanity's long-term love-hate relationship with canines. "Rabies coevolved to live in the dog, and the dog coevolved to live with us," they write, "and this confluence, the three of us, is far too combustible a thing." Fear of rabies may have been behind some other ancient nightmares: the big, bad wolf of fairy tales, the werewolf and vampire of gothic romances and even the zombies so popular today. As entertaining as they are on rabies in culture, the authors also eruditely report on medicine and public health issues through history, from ancient Assyria to Bali to Manhattan in the last five years, showing that while the disease may be contained, it may never be fully conquered. Surprisingly fun reading about a fascinating malady.

Library Journal

No dry medical tome, this book digs up the rabid origins of cultural fixtures like werewolves and vampires. Reaching back to ancient Babylon and the shores of Troy, Wasik and Murphy trace the path this terrifying virus has burnt through human history—while it is still a certain death sentence, the disease was nearly eliminated after Louis Pasteur and Émile Roux developed a vaccine in the late 19th century. Full of art, literature, and history, this is the perfect science book for humanities nerds. (LJ 6/1/12)—Molly McArdle

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Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780670023738
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Publication date: 7/19/2012
Pages: 240
Sales rank: 97,755
Product dimensions: 5.88 (w) x 8.36 (h) x 1.02 (d)

Meet the Author

Bill Wasik is a senior editor at Harper’s magazine, where he has written on culture, media, and politics. He is the editor of the anthology Submersion Journalism and has also written for The Oxford American, Slate, Salon, and McSweeney’s.

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Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus

Overview

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Available on NOOK devices and apps Nook Devices NOOK HD/HD+ Tablet NOOK NOOK Color NOOK Tablet Tablet/Phone NOOK for Windows 8 Tablet NOOK for iOS NOOK for Android NOOK Kids for iPad PC/Mac NOOK for Windows 8 NOOK for PC NOOK for Mac NOOK Study NOOK for Web

All Available Formats & Editions

Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

More About This Book

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Editorial Reviews

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The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

Library Journal

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Meet the Author

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