Rat City

The Next Big Idea Club’s July 2024 Must-Read Books“A largely fascinating book combining sociology, nature, and urban studies.” - Kirkus Reviews “Rats both epitomize life in the city and serve as icons of laboratory-based psychological research. Adams and Ramsden have crafted a captivating account showing how these meanings intertwined through the career of John B. Calhoun, in whose hands the behavior of rats provided clarion lessons for the fate of a rapidly urbanizing humanity.” - Erika Lorraine Milam, Charles C. and Emily R. Gillispie Professor in the History of Science, Princeton, and author of Creatures of Cain: the Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America “John Calhoun epitomized the scientist in postwar America: ambitious, rigorous, and occasionally deluded, with lab mice at his feet and the weight of the world on his shoulders. Rat City deftly explores his vision and its reverberations on the social life of Americans, with our lonely crowds, empty skyscrapers, and psychotic incels. It’s history that feels all too relevant.” -Dan Piepenbring, co-author of NYT bestseller The Beautiful Ones “In Rat City, Adams and Ramsden unearth an entire hidden history of the twentieth century city and its anxieties; a fascinating and deeply researched book, as well as a vital reference point for our own age of urban stress.” - Des Fitzgerald, author of The City Of Today Is A Dying Thing “Breathtaking in its scope yet microscopic in its attention to detail, this journey through the fascinating and previously untold story of John B. Calhoun’s impeccable, pioneering and prescient study of the dystopian horror caused by intentional overcrowding in his simulated rat city echoes through decades of human urban squalor, poverty, racial inequality and weak science. Lyrically written and perfectly paced - springing off on interesting, contextual tangents and snapping deftly back to the compelling central narrative - this is a surprising page turner that leaves your mind bursting with new information.” - Justine Smith, journalist and writer “Rat City is the rare science story that covers a dazzling breadth of inquiry without sacrificing depth of insight. … a revelatory human tale of character and consequence. Equal parts biography and science writing, it captures one man’s intellectual passion and the stakes of our entire species’ quest to live together.” - Lawrence Lanahan, author of The Lines Between Us: Two Families and a Quest to Cross Baltimore’s Racial Divide

Edmund Ramsden is an historian of science at Queen Mary University of London, with an interest in the history of the social, behavioral and biological sciences in the 20th century. Jon Adams is a former BBC New Generation Thinker and author of Interference Patterns- Literary Study, Scientific Knowledge, and Disciplinary Autonomy. They both previously worked at the London School of Economics, where they began collaborating on the history and influence of John B. Calhoun’s rodent crowding experiments.