I am frankly shocked at many of the user reviews of this book. Many of them seem to think this book was going to be a biology textbook about rats and not a history book. If only there were some clue that it was a history book in the titl-wait a tick...it IS in the title. Frankly, I was not interested in the biology of rats when I picked up this book, and, luckily, there was not too much of it. Sullivan instead, and rightly, focuses on the historical relationship between rats and humans in America and abroad. The parallels he draws between rats and humans continuously building on top of history and the extended metaphor of revolutionary figures persisting in the face of tremendous opposition (much like rats) were particularly enjoyable (and not annoying tangents as some reviewers labeled them.) I don't typically read other reviews for books, but I thought for sure this page would be filled with praise for Mr. Sullivan who was able to write a beautiful tribute to something as icky and gross as rats.

As an NYC resident, this book is definitely interesting for those of us who are accustomed to rats as a daily part of life. As the author states, everyone in New York has at least one rat story, and I enjoyed reading about these stories from Manhattan to Bushwick. I did find parts of the book to be dry and could have done without some of the in-depth scientific/genealogical descriptions of the rat species. Overall, it’s a quick read that is both informative and entertaining.

I love rats

I almost gave this book a DNF after two chapters but it was an easy read with sometimes interesting information peripherally related to rats. There were tidbits about the Bubonic Plague in China, the Battle of Golden Hill, squalor living conditions in San Francisco, mania for native plants in Germany, Audubon, Thoreau's Walden, poisons, when Extermintaors began to be called Pest Control Operators (in 1936), and estimates of rat populations in NewYork City.

Sullivan, the author, suggests 250,000 is the reasonable estimate then goes on to mention an authority says there are a million rats on Riker Island. So Manhattan, some 400 time the size of Rikers has 1/4 the rats? I don't think so. Here is an article > https://www.google.com/amp/s/observer...

Sullivan notes there are 250 businesses doing rat control in NYC, the largest having 100 employees. Let's say they all did = 25,000 employees, each dispatching a conservative one rat a day (say in a 400 day year) = ten million rats gone - they wouldn't be in business long if there were only 250,000 to deal with.

Another thing that bothered me was that right near the beginning (page six) Sullivan advises he wasn't going to talk about fancy rats (pet rats and lab rats). Come-on-now a book about rats and he brings in antecdotes about China, history, Audubon, Walden, various legislations and he is going to leave out lab rats! I would have rather he spent his time comparing maze running times of white lab rats to black sewer rats than sitting in an alley watching rats burrow into garbage.

Enough of rats I am moving onto lobsters.