Hardback | |
August 24, 2021 | |
9781421441382 | |
English | |
296 | |
33 b&w illus. | |
9.00 Inches (US) | |
6.00 Inches (US) | |
1.25 Pounds (US) | |
1.25 Pounds (US) | |
$32.00 USD, £23.50 GBP | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Electronic book text | |
September 15, 2021 | |
9781421441399 | |
9781421441382 | |
English | |
296 | |
33 b&w illus. | |
9.00 Inches (US) | |
6.00 Inches (US) | |
$32.00 USD, £23.50 GBP | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Getting Under Our Skin
The Cultural and Social History of Vermin
In Getting Under Our Skin, Lisa T. Sarasohn tells the fascinating story of how vermin came to signify the individuals and classes that society impugns and ostracizes. How did these creatures go from annoyance to social stigma? And how did people thought verminous become considered almost a species of vermin themselves? Focusing on Great Britain and North America, Sarasohn explains how the label "vermin" makes dehumanization and violence possible. She describes how Cromwellians in Ireland and US cavalry on the American frontier both justified slaughter by warning "Nits grow into lice." Nazis not only labeled Jews as vermin, they used insecticides in the gas chambers to kill them during the Holocaust.
Concentrating on the insects living in our bodies, clothes, and beds, Sarasohn also looks at rats and their social impact. Besides their powerful symbolic status in all cultures, rats' endurance challenges all human pretentions. From eighteenth-century London merchants anointing their carved bedsteads with roasted cat to repel bedbugs to modern-day hedge fund managers hoping neighbors won't notice exterminators in their penthouses, the studies in this book reveal that vermin continue to fuel our prejudices and threaten our status. Getting Under Our Skin will appeal to cultural historians, naturalists, and to anyone who has ever scratched—and then gazed in horror.
About the Author
Reviews
"With a colorful cast of characters that includes the nasty critters that gnaw, bite, and torment us as well as the scientists and exterminators who waged war against them, this rich cultural history puts in perspective the body's vulnerability to invasion from outside threats, from the Black Death to COVID-19, and tells a new story of how we became modern."—William Eamon, New Mexico State University, author of The Professor of Secrets: Mystery, Medicine, and Alchemy in Renaissance Italy
"A grand tour through hundreds of years of human interactions with vermin of all sorts, this cornucopia of history, science, literature, popular culture, and political satire will take you places you never thought of going."—Mary Terrall, University of California, Los Angeles, author of Catching Nature in the Act: Réaumur and the Practice of Natural History in the Eighteenth Century
"At turns amusing and appalling, Sarasohn's engaging book warns us against the danger of equating cleanliness and godliness, and shows how describing people as bedbugs, fleas—and especially lice and rats—has had deplorable and horrific consequences."—Brian W. Ogilvie, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, author of The Science of Describing: Natural History in Renaissance Europe
The Johns Hopkins University Press | |
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Hardback | |
August 24, 2021 | |
9781421441382 | |
English | |
296 | |
33 b&w illus. | |
9.00 Inches (US) | |
6.00 Inches (US) | |
1.25 Pounds (US) | |
1.25 Pounds (US) | |
$32.00 USD, £23.50 GBP | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Electronic book text | |
September 15, 2021 | |
9781421441399 | |
9781421441382 | |
English | |
296 | |
33 b&w illus. | |
9.00 Inches (US) | |
6.00 Inches (US) | |
$32.00 USD, £23.50 GBP | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Other Titles by Lisa T. Sarasohn
The Natural Philosophy of Margaret Cavendish
Other Titles in HISTORY / Social History
Knights of the Golden Rule
The Interlopers
"A Third Reich, as I See It"
Other Titles in History of science
Making Machines of Animals
A Centaur in London
The Interlopers