{"product_id":"rat-city-overcrowding-and-urban-derangement-in-the-rodent-universes-of-john-b-calhoun-9781685890995","title":"Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B. Calhoun","description":"\u003cb\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"Entertaining, phenomenally weird . . . \u003ci\u003eRat City \u003c\/i\u003emay well be the world's first-ever work of socio-biographical-scientific pop history. . . .a freaky romp down a peculiar passage in the history of ideas, full of oddball cameos (Aldous Huxley! Buckminster Fuller!) and some very sharp science writing.\"--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBehind the internet's viral \"Universe 25\" experiment and Robert C. O'Brien's iconic novel, \u003ci\u003eMrs. Frisby and the Secret of NIMH, \u003c\/i\u003ewas one scientist who set out to change the way we view our fellow man -- using rats . . . \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAfter the Civil War and throughout the twentieth century, cities in northern American states absorbed a huge increase in populations, particularly of immigrants and African Americans from southern states. City governments responded by creating new regulations that were often segregationist -- corralling black Americans, for example, into small, increasingly overcrowded neighborhoods, or into high-rise \"projects.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe situation intensified after World War II, as rising crime and racial unrest swept the nation, and blame fell on the crowded conditions of city life. The hardest-hit populations were left marginalized and voiceless.\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEnter John B. Calhoun, an ecologist employed by the National Institute of Mental Health to study the effects of overcrowding on rats. From 1947 to 1977, Calhoun built a series of sprawling habitats in which a rat's every need was met--except space. The results were cataclysmic. Did a similar fate await our own teeming cities? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eRat City\u003c\/i\u003e is the first book to tell the story of Calhoun's experiments, and their extraordinary influence -- an enthralling record of urban design and dystopian science. Meticulously researched, it follows Calhoun's struggle to solve the problem of crowding before America's cities drain into the behavioral sink. And as the \"war on rats\" continues around the world, and our post-pandemic society reevaluates the necessity of urban living, the riveting story of \u003ci\u003eRat City\u003c\/i\u003e is more relevant than ever.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eEdmund Ramsden\u003c\/b\u003e 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. \u003cb\u003eJon Adams\u003c\/b\u003e is a former BBC New Generation Thinker and author of \u003ci\u003eInterference Patterns: Literary Study, Scientific Knowledge, and Disciplinary Autonomy\u003c\/i\u003e. 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.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Melville House Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50627505226002,"sku":"9781685890995","price":23.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_4c7e7470-5088-4708-9ddd-eaab1e54f31c.jpg?v=1732674284","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/rat-city-overcrowding-and-urban-derangement-in-the-rodent-universes-of-john-b-calhoun-9781685890995","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}