More Cunning Than Man: A Social History of Rats and Man

by Robert Hendrickson

Filled with rat attack stories, strange tales of elderly women living with rats, and other interesting information, a fascinating foray into the world of the rat examines the way these creatures have survived through the ages despite many attempts to annihilate them. Reprint.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Nature, Animals

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[Paul Cowdell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great romp. I work a lot on folklore about rats, and this was a particularly rich source of material, some of it familiar but by no means all. The biggest problem is that it's well-researched but doesn't provide enough access clues to its sources: some can be worked out from the text, but others can't, which becomes a limitation when he rehashes contemporary legends without acknowledgement. There's a little padding (the chapter on Mickey Mouse felt entirely unnecessary), but it was basically a pleasure to read.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of this is way off base; many of the reviews I have seen have focused on how well-researched this book is and while it is true that some of the elements are, a lot of them are obviously urban legends or horribly over-exaggerated anecdotes given by people who obviously are not aware of much about rats and are speaking only from fear or cultural stereotypes.

I spent a great deal of time examining the points he made about how rats are ferocious, disease-ridden, gluttonous and tend to over-populate their environment and I couldn't help but draw a parallel with humanity and wonder if that is why humans have always held them in such horror - because they hold up a very unflattering mirror to us.

The tends to open up each chapter with horrifying, sensationlistic stories about rats lurking in corners preparing to jump out and eat babies or some other such nonsense whereas anyone who knows anything about rats will tell you that rats much prefer to avoid humans and will not tend to bite unless they are provoked (or you smell like food, because they are remarkably short-sighted) - and being at heart lazy animals, prefer much easier to attain meals than humans, which are much larger than they are. His hysterical recounting of the diseases that rats carry is outdated; many of the diseases listed have since been determined to actually be much more frequently carried by other animals, including other rodents that humans find "cute," such as prairie dogs and squirrels (but we don't find mass extermination campaigns against them, do we?). Zoonosis from rodents, in any event, is extremely rare in industrialized countries in the modern era.

Overall I was very disappointed in this book - I was hoping for some cold, hard facts and instead I got all the same sort of hysteria and sensationalism I could get reading the Star. The only reason I gave it 3 stars was because there were a few interesting facts in there, and the bibliography is very useful. If you are actually interested in learning about rats, however, I suggest you look elsewhere.

[Tim Weakley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned so much about rats in NYC from this book, likely more than I ever wanted to know! It did give me a lot of insight when I eventually began to keep a few rats. Understanding some of their behaviours was puzzling until I understood how neophobic they actually are.

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is an old book, and it was interesting to see how writing styles and in particular, reporting etiquette has evolved since this book was written.
The information contained in this non-fiction book is suspect. I would take all everything reported with a pinch of salt, as it is highly anecdotal. Locations and surnames are absent from the re-tellings of things that have happened involving rats, making the stories feel more like here-say rather than truth.
The author treats the subject matter, Rats, with distaste. As a pet rat owner i was disappointed in this bias, as the title lead me to think this would be a more pro-rat book. There is also a chapter on Mickey Mouse, when the author runs out of subject matter, which I found amusing.

[Midge ☠ ★ 99% poison ★ ☠]

this book was hit and miss for me. It was a quick & easy read but the author's style tended to be a bit idk, fanciful at times. Then there were the repeated (but poorly/not at all cited) stories about horrific & outlandish rat attacks peppered throughout the whole book, even in unrelated chapters... like yes this occasionally happens, but not every time anyone ever lies down to sleep my guy. The fancy rat chapter did not include any real overview of how rats entered the pet trade which I hoped to read about. And perhaps 40% of the book was about mice, including an extended chapter about Mickey Mouse, which absolutely was included to pad the page count. I learned a few tidbits but can't say this was a satisfying book, if you know what I mean.

[Sophie Gale · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was--if you will forgive--a bit cheesy in places, but once he left off being cute, there was a lot of interesting information on the wide world of rodents.