Rabid

A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus

By: Bill Wasik, Monica Murphy

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

A maddened creature, frothing at the mouth, lunges at an innocent victim—and with a bite, transforms its prey into another raving monster. It’s a scenario that underlies our darkest tales of supernatural horror, but its power derives from a very real virus, a deadly scourge known to mankind from our earliest days. In this fascinating exploration, journalist Bill Wasik and veterinarian Monica Murphy chart four thousand years in the history, science, and cultural mythology of rabies.

The most fatal virus known to science, rabies kills nearly 100 percent of its victims once the infection takes root in the brain. A disease that spreads avidly from animals to humans, rabies has served as a symbol of savage madness and inhuman possession throughout history. Today, its history can help shed light on the wave of emerging diseases—from AIDS to SARS to avian flu—with origins in animal populations.

From Greek myths to zombie flicks, from the laboratory heroics of Louis Pasteur to the contemporary search for a lifesaving treatment, Rabid is a fresh, fascinating, and often wildly entertaining look at one of mankind’s oldest and most fearsome foes.

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

©2012 Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"[An] ambitious and smart history of the virus…. 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." ( Publishers Weekly)

"[Wasik and Murphy] 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 twenty-first-century Bali…Readable, fascinating, informative, and occasionally gruesome, this is highly recommended for anyone interested in medical history or the cultural history of disease." ( Library Journal)

Haunting And Powerful...

A tour de force through the cultural, psychological and medical influence of one of the most fearful and misunderstood viral diseases that humankind has ever known, a disorder that attacks not the blood or the body tissues, but slowly and implacably stalks the brain, sometimes in days, sometimes in month...and sometimes even years, long after the healing of the original wound and the immediate memory of the bite or scratch that caused it. Wasik and Murphy invoke a chilling literary style in writing this remarkably compelling and informative book. Best medical history since The Demon Under The Microscope. Exceedingly well done.

A good topic, but it lacks cohesion

I love historical books, specially those who talks about medicine and diseases. But this book could have been more specific. The authors talk about dogs, vampires, zombies, aids and forget that rabid should be the main point, the glue that holds the story in place. When they tell the story of Pasteur the book amazes, but when they divagate, the book sinks.

An interesting listen....

... but not, alas, about rabies. I would estimate perhaps 15% of this is about rabies and the remainder somewhat desperate leaps into subjects with a barely tangible connections to the topic. Fair, it is billed as "a cultural history", but there are seemingly endless and lengthy diversions into dogs, vampires, Gothic fiction and so forth. The book sags greatly, but is lifted somewhat by the chapter on Louis Pasteur.

The narration is marred by some clunky punch ins which seem to have come from a different studio and some equally clunky accents used when a quotation is being read.

Not terrible

There was an awful lot of filler, but the parts that were actually about the title subject were interesting.

Slow to start

The first few chapters of this book were a bit disconnected from the rest of the story. I almost stopped reading. However, I am glad that I stuck in there, because the book did get interesting. Not sure that I would recommend unless you really love this genre.

Fascinasting

this was an intriguing book and very interesting. i would definitely recoomend it to others

A good book... but it touched my pet peeve...

This is an extreamly interesting book. but I have found so so so many American scholars making the error about Muslim physicians who "discoverd" medical breakthroughs... that they most certainly did not. I have tired of hearing these claims. It's offensive. It's false! And it is an epidemic of histrionics that I simply cannot stomach. Have these academic airhead never heard of the City of Byzantium? So so many have not. Take for example: In chapter 3 at the time stamp: 42:05 and onwards the author makes reference to FIFTH-century "Muslims"?? ... a good 200 years before Mohammed is even born... So what was this Muslims religion exactly? And 500ad was a further 450+ years before the Quran was Frankensteined together into a single recitation.

note: (There were STILL 80+ accepted recitations accepted in 1900ad as legitimate versions... because there has never only been one version... but I digress)

This claim about a Muslim Dr 100 years before Arabic was a written language and 200yrs before Mohammad was born is ANOTHER example of the ignorance of American education system re-writing history to exclude the Christian scientists that preserved and wrote the medical science that the Muslims plagiarized as their own work. The desert Bandits that that eventually pillaged their way across the old Roman empire. Raping culture and rewriting history as they went did not make 1/1,000 of their "discoveries" on their own. Rather they had LITERATE Greeks re-write Latin text into Arabic and then publish it as their own work. This was how the few works that were not burned survived the Muslim purge as they ravished all they conquered. Like when they burned hundreds of libraries (including Alexandra) for containing knowledge that was different then their bandit-leaders teaching. The logic was, If it is truth, it is already in the Quran, and if it is not in the Quran then it is not truth. But having it published by a Muslim, in Arabic... that might bring admiration to the followers of the "prophet". (The prophet who can't prophesy... or work miracles. To show that he speaks "truth from God.") Does God not endorse His own message by proving His messenger speaks the truth through signs and wonders? Sure He does... ask anyone who can do miracles or prophesy. Only liars and charlatans make converts at the point of a sword.

Jesus, after preforming miraclesis answering the Jewish leaders: ..."what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
John 10:36‭-‬38 NIVp

Great medical history lesson

To be honest I didn’t think I would enjoy this book- but from minute one I was captivated. The science is sound, the history fascinating. In our current situation of zoonotic plague (COVID) this book will help people understand how diseases such as these enter the human realm.

The fun history regarding both real characters (Pasteur) and fictional (vampires and werewolves) is well presented.

It is just gory enough- I highly recommend this read.

Well worth the read!

I got this on a whim and couldn’t be more pleased. Informative, funny (actually made me laugh out loud in some places!) and especially relevant given the state of our world.

Great Mix of Materials

I loved the juxtaposition of biology, history, and their impact on literature and mythologies. The horrible history of this virus laid bare, yet with a light of hope and a call for proper actions at the end. A good read. My students also seem to love it.