Name and institutional affiliation are requested. My visitor suggested that the book had probably inspired generations of students to study microbiology and medicine. I had heard this kind of praise before. I read Microbe Hunters when I was in high school, and I remembered the dramatic sketches of Pasteur, Koch, and the lesser gods. Earlier this year I reread it.
Some books retain their readability and relevance for generations.
Microbe Hunters does not. Political correctness and cultural diversity aside, it would be hard to ignore the racial attitudes that permeate de Kruif's writing. Nonwhites and non-Europeans do not fare well in de Kruif's Microbe Hunt ers. Ross seemed to have taken as much interest in the welfare of his malaria patients as Bruce did in his sleeping sickness patients. He put fleas on him.