Paul de Kruif: An American Microbiologist in Washington, DC

Borja Ibarrondo Hernandez: Superb book, a classic in history of science

Netherlands on Oct 07, 2023

Q. Pierre: Author has good entertaining writing style and tells interesting facts about those who pursued discovering microbes. I liked learning about all he wrote about.

United States on Aug 10, 2023

Amazon Customer: Must read for all the scientific ones, digging into the roots of everything that happens around them...just loved the reading experience.

India on Aug 23, 2022

Enrique Sapien: Este título es un clásico para conocer cómo fueron descubiertas muchas de las opciones actualmente disponibles y que revolucionaron la microbiología, salvando vidas y mejorando nuestra calidad de vida. En lo personal no me gustó mucho esta edición, pero es la única disponible. A final de cuentas las 5 estrellas es por el contenido. Por la edición, le daría 3 ya que no es de mucha calidad, y creo que este título merece una mejor edición.

Mexico on Jun 27, 2021

Bama Fan: This book takes a unique look at some scientists that you know (Pasteur, Koch etc. ) as well as many others that you've probably never heard of. The author's tone is one of excitement and wonderment and the style with which he writes makes it sound as if he is so happy to be able to describe the thoughts, experiments and experiences of each of these scientists. I did not know about all of the things Pasteur is responsible for and did not know about his personality compared to Koch. I also did not know that there was some interest in discovering things for your country to claim bragging rights. All in all a great read. Please keep in mind that this was published originally almost 100 years ago and there are some areas where the author refers to other people in an egregious way. However, the content of the book overall is enjoyable and gives you a new appreciation for current scientific ethics!

United States on Aug 03, 2020

I. Hutchinson: An in-depth but understandable account of the great pioneers of medical research struggling against prejudice and the ignorance of the science of the day.

United Kingdom on Jun 14, 2020

Charlie: Microbe Hunters tells the fascinating stories of some of the men who discovered the causes of diseases that killed millions. From Louis Pasteur to Walter Reed, these were devoted scientists who risked their lives in pursuit of the truth. This focus and devotion is truly admirable. The story of how Pasteur discovered the concept of vaccination is illuminating. Paul De Kruif writes in a manner that allows the reader to feel like he is often present as these men make their discoveries. He highlights their brilliance, as well as their common traits that remind us they are human. The value that the subjects of this book brought to humankind are incalculable, they saved millions and millions of lives. This book shows the power of science and how it is directly responsible for the flourishing of human life.

United States on Dec 28, 2019

daveyd: Microbe Hunter's initial copyright was in 1926 by author Paul de Kruif although the first printing dates to 1918.
The pages begin with "... microscopic critters can inflict upon humankind torments and agonies unsuspected, sufferings unheard of, pains and diseases yet unnamed..." all Nature is over-run and covered with a kind of leprosy."
A few centuries past history was made by Antony Leeuwenhoek who was born into a world of superstitions where Galileo was silenced for life when he proved that the earth rotated the sun. But Antony was a man of wonderment and an insatiable curiosity that would lead to the development of the world's first microscope. He was the first to observe "beasts" that annihilated entire animal and human species that were millions of times larger in size. These silent and invisible purveyors of contagions and panics could cover a major swath of predation without warning.
Microbe Hunters is a 350 page manuscript of twelve chapters where the names of countless chemists, scientists and observers punctuate the pages with too-many-to count individual disappointments but compensated with the once-in-a-decade alas "I found it" moment of...

United States on May 04, 2017

James J. Wynne: I first read this book almost 60 years ago and have remembered some of the stories ever since. With the current publicity about infectious disease, e.g., Ebola, and having received a Kindle for Christmas, I downloaded and, once again, read Microbe Hunters. It is a fabulous set of biographies, written by an superb story teller who brings each of the real people, the microbe hunters themselves, to life.

I am a great admirer of Louis Pasteur, arguably the most heroic of the microbe hunters. de Kruif details many of Pasteur's triumphs and even includes some of his "ethical" imperfections, effectively "humanizing" him. Nevertheless, Pasteur still comes across as the best of the best, a superb basic scientist and an even better applied scientist. Pasteur and Koch's "germ theory of disease" ranks up there with Newton's explanation of gravity, Maxwell's unification of electricity and magnetism, and Einstein's relativity as one of the all time greatest scientific explanations of how the world works.

I recommend this book to people of all ages, from 10 - 100. Thank you, Paul de Kruif!!

Note: Thanks to a wonderful high school physics teacher, I became a...

United States on Jun 28, 2015

R. Bruce Nicoll: I first bought a pocket book edition of Microbe Hunters back in the 1970s. I read it a few times, and enjoyed it thoroughly. It reads like an adventure novel, and hold your interest throughout, relating the stories of Anton Leuwenhoeck, Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch and others microbe hunters in fascinating detail. I took it along on a recent holiday to read again, but by the time I had done, the binding was coming apart and the book was in pieces. In checking on amazon.com I saw that the older edition was now rare and expensive but a new edition of the same book had been made, and the price was very reasonable, so I got two, one for me to keep and one for a friend that also likes reading stories about scientific discovery.

Canada on Jun 26, 2014