Well if I wasn't already so jaded from having lived through the last nine months of the COVID-19 pandemic, I'd be terrified mosquitos were coming to exterminate all of us!

I accepted this galley back in April when the pandemic was just really kicking off.* And then I promptly forgot about it for a few months, followed by avoiding it for even longer because it just didn't feel right to read it with the way the world was going. I finally decided I needed to clear my galley backlog and this was the oldest so here we are. This particular quote caught me with all the rumors flying about where COVID-19 came from:

Zoonosis rates have tripled in the last ten years, and account for 75% of all human diseases. The goal of health researchers is to identify potential 'spillover' germs before they make a zoonotic jump to humans. (Ch. 18)

After reading this book, I feel like wherever coranavirus came from it was like "hey Mosquito, hold my beer," and then it seriously underwhelmed when you look at the stats in this book!

For the most part I found the book fascinating. Winegard's style is very conversational and I feel like he'd be a great instructor in a classroom. The seemingly tangential way he connected things from an NFL player's near-death experience in Colorado (from sickle cell anemia) to world conquerors like Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great, this book really does cover a huge expanse of time.

This is probably the most concise description of the novel taken from the conclusion,

The mosquito sponsored both the rise and fall of ancient empires, she gave birth to independent nations while callously subduing and subjugating others. She has crippled and even razed economies. She has prowled the most momentous and pivotal battlefields, menaced and slaughtered the greatest armies of her generations, and outmaneuvered the most celebrated generals and military minds ever mustered to arms, slaying many of these men in the course of her carnage. Throughout our history of violence, Generals Anopheles and Aedes [mosquito types] were powerful weapons of war, moonlighting as formidable foes of avaricious allies.

And Winegard touched on all of it and it was honestly a bit overwhelming. For the list of dead by mosquito-born-disease he name-checked included: Alexander the Great, Hannibal, at least seven popes, Dante Alighieri, Genghis Kahn, multiple civilizations, Sir Frances Drake, and Oliver Cromwell. There were I'm sure dozens of others (including eight American Presidents who didn't die but had malaria) and the staggering number of people who've died because of mosquitos it's just hard to even fathom.

One takeaway from the book for me was that humans have always been horrible when it comes to biological warfare. not only did Winegard trace ancient Greeks and Romans using the bogs around Rome to their benefit but he provided specific examples of humans using biological warfare that stood out in my mind:

During the siege of the port city of Kaffa in 1346, the Mongols catapulted infected bubonic plague corpses over the city walls to contaminate the inhabitants and break the siege. (Ch. 6)

The mosquito and her diseases were the substance of bone-chilling experimentation and medical and weapons research by both the Axis and Allied powers. We could now harness her destructive power and her dominion of death to purge our human enemies. (Ch. 17)

And this doesn't include the number of times he catalogued colonists (or regulars) wanting to use diseased blankets/clothing to either directly harm indigenous populations or the opposition during the American Revolutionary War. it just turned my stomach to read that and once again reminded me how woefully undereducated/miseducated(?) we are growing up.

The biggest detraction of the book for me was the hyper focus on the Western world post WWII. Winegard spent so much time walking us through ancient Greece and Rome, the Persian Empire, the Mongol Empire, the African continent, and then just sort of lumped everything after that into a less-than-stellar global generalization. A huge part of this comes from where the priority of western medicine and investments came from especially after the discovery/impact of HIV.

The mysterious, perplexing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and its symptomatic counterpart, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), were consuming public commentary, driving cultural fear, and monopolizing medical research budgets. The promise of a cure meant money-spinning prescription payouts. (Ch. 18)

But it left me wanting. How have mosquito vector diseases continued to affect the African continent since the end of the slave trade? And ditto on Asia between the last major emperors and communism? What was going on there? He sort of touched on these things but not to the extent he touched on the America and Europe and that felt like a bit hole in the "human history" of mosquitos. I don't know if it was just a lack of resources in English, but it was by far the biggest issue for me. 

Winegard mentioned dozens of books but these stood out to me because I've already read the one and the others I've either owned at some point or have read excerpts of and would like to actually read at some point:

Silent Spring - Rachel Carson
Guns, Germs, and Steal - Jared Diamond
Common Sense - Thomas Paine
Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe
Coffee: A Dark History - Antony Wild

And to me, that's the sign of a good nonfiction work, it makes you want to know more about something. It doesn't necessarily have to be what the focus of the book is on, but it needs to pique your interest enough to want to keep researching!

Recommendation: I knew I'd enjoy this book when I requested it. I mean give me something that seems a little bit weird and for the most part I'm going to be happy, and I was with this book. The coverage of the book was staggering and although there was a pretty heavy western slant (especially toward the end of the work) I found it to be cohesive and approachable. I can easily imagine enjoying a class taught by Winegard from his totally nerdy Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings references to the enthusiasm you can clearly feel as he weaves a personal narrative into this work.

*I received a copy of The Mosquito from the publisher via NetGalley in return for my honest opinion. No goods or money were exchanged.

Draining the Swamp, From the Beginning of Time
BY JOHN KENDALL HAWKINSFacebookTwitterRedditEmail
In the 1963 horror-thriller, The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock wants his viewers to understand the world from the point-of-view of birds. Angry birds. Birds angry at humans. The question is: Why? Why are the birds angry? Why have they gone amok, seeding chaos, and what will be the solution?

My favorite shot in the movie comes when Hitchcock has a seagull floating over a town on fire and in full-flight panic — as if the bird were considering its work below, like a parent determining whether the administered spanking to a brat had been enough. And then another birds shows up in the frame, and another, and another, and then they all descend again. Why are they so angry?

Maybe part of the answer is attitude — hubris — or, as Bobby Dylan once sang, “Man thinks ’cause he rules the earth he can do with it as he please.” In 1962, Rachel Carson released Silent Spring, a cataloguing of Humanity’s catastrophic treatment of the natural environment. Man was shitting his bed regularly and seemed proud of it. The ever-ironical Hitchcock was providing payback for the angered birds: Who’s luffing now?

In Timothy C. Winegard’s The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator, the author goes one better than Hitchcock by substituting birds with mosquitoes and providing the creature’s point-of-view going all the way back to the Age of Dinosaurs. As far as Winegard is concerned, mosquitoes have been calling the shots throughout history in the animal kingdom, but especially with human beings, who, seemingly, have seen the decisions of virtually every ‘Great Man’ affected in pivotal moments by contact with the tiny disease-bearing predators.

The male mosquito does not bite and, according to Winegard, lives a Beautiful Life of procuring sex and nectar. When it’s time for the woman warrior to come looking for larval love, the males form a “swarm” tunnel into which she swoons, looking for a “heartbeat boy” on a version of “If You Are the One.” If you’re ‘lucky,’ one of these swarms might occur right over your head — and can extend “1000 feet into the air” — as you’re walking. Writes Weingard, “You are not paranoid, nor are you imagining this phenomenon. Take it as a compliment. Male mosquitoes have graced you with the honor of being a ‘swarm marker.’” Once the sperm is obtained, he says, all they need is blood — yours or mine.

Winegard pictures a knocked-up mosquito landing on a patch of human skin. He provides almost an engineer’s description of the mechanical processes involved in biting into and drillin’ for blood:

She conducts a tender, probing, ten-second reconnaissance, looking for a prime blood vessel. With her backside in the air, she steadies her crosshairs and zeros in with six sophisticated needles. She inserts two serrated mandible cutting blades (much like an electric carving knife with two blades shifting back and forth), and saws into your skin, while two other retractors open a passage for the proboscis, a hypodermic syringe that emerges from its protective sheath….

On and on it goes, but, in short, she sucks your blood, and goes off to deposit her blood children in a pool of still water.

There is a cartoonish anthropomorphism that winds its way through the book. It’s clear that Winegard has fun referring to the principal lethal mosquito as General Anopheles — for almost 600 pages. Winegard has a military history background (but reads more like Jeremy Scahill than some swaggering apologist for the Pentagon), and his last book, The First World Oil War, was about the underlying fight to control petroleum during “the war to end all wars.” So, he’s comfortable dressing the mosquito in a general’s uniform and leading him into battle — always the victor, one way or another. General Anopheles is our hateful enemy.

“We are at war with the mosquito,” Winegard declares in his introduction. We’ve been at war for the whole shebang of human time. Almost half of the 108 billion humans who have lived in the last 200,000 years, perished by exposure to toxic mosquito bites. This is a staggering fact, if true (he’s extrapolating from data). But as Weingard indicates, “The biting female warriors of this droning insect population are armed with at least fifteen lethal and debilitating biological weapons against our 7.7 billion humans deploying suspect and often self-detrimental defensive capabilities.” Some of the maladies have been with us for a long time — malaria, dengue, yellow fever — weapons humans have struggled mightily to overcome.

Because Weingard approaches the history from a battlefront perspective involving Big Man confrontations, a lot of time is spent detailing how said maladies are used to advantage by various warriors. As so many battles Weingard describes seem to involve one side drawing the other into literal quagmires of infested mosquito zones, one imagines a briefing of some sort warning soldiers of what to watch for.

Walt Disney put out an especially effective film, The Winged Scourge, in 1943 that explains to soldiers the cycle of infection. (A soldier at the time, Dr. Seuss was also given an opportunity to spread the word to his mates and put out a pamphlet, “This is Ann…She drinks blood,” that likened malaria to a venereal disease delivered by some floozy — seemingly with green eggs and sore hams.) As Weingard repeats, over and over, malarial infections among soldiers had often-catastrophic consequences for fighters.

Winegard’s account of mosquitoes covers millions of years. The best approach to understanding how he proceeds and what the reader can expect is to provide a sampling in, say, four separate historical epochs. I found interesting his speculations on the disappearance of dinosaurs, his alternate take on the comings and goings of Ghengis Khan and the Mongols, Napoleon’s first use of biological warfare, and, probably most interesting (and controversial) of all, from an American’s point of view, the role mosquitoes played in New World slavery.

There was a time when we wondered about the extinction of the dinosaurs, and came to the conclusion, after much debate, that it was all about the fiery spitballs from outer space. That was a long time ago. These days time seems to be speeding up. Is it a natural fact, I wonder, or just old age? I think more about the extinction of great thoughts, The Sixth Extinction, and what, if any of it, mattered. Winegard argues that “that up to 70% of regional species were already extinct or endangered” by the time the asteroids hit. He credits the floozy from the oozy for the greater part of the kill, and we should be thankful: “Aided by her role in eliminating these top-tier dinosaur predators,” he writes, “mammals, including our direct prehominid ancestors, evolved and flourished.”

The Nazis admired Mongol tactics, writes Winegard; they were so similar to Blitzkrieg, encircling “their hapless enemies with breathtaking, unrivaled speed and ferocity.” But “the mosquito sucked dry their dreams of European subjugation,” and as “the mosquito helped prevent the west from being completely overrun. She harnessed her malarial might and held the reins of Mongol conquest, steering them away from Europe.” They returned East.

However, Winegard points out the greatest achievement of the long Mongol reign, stretching from Ghengis Khan to Kublai Khan, is that they opened up a permanent means of communication, transport and commerce between East and West, later called The Silk Road. “The Mongols were willing to allow traders, missionaries, and travelers to navigate their entire empire, opening China and the rest of the east to Europeans, Arabs, Persians, and others for the first time…These new land routes opened by Mongol military expansion created an immeasurably smaller global society by fusing two larger, previously distinct geographical worlds.”

Napoleon had his own Empire-building problems with mosquitoes. The African slaves he hoped to build a sugar-producing colony in Haiti with revolted in 1791. The natural defenses against malaria (such as sickle-cell anemia) that most slaves brought with them from Africa, argues Winegard, allowed them to resist and defeat the French soldiers sent to quell the resistance, but who had their own waterloo problems with mosquitoes. “Although the United States was the first to be born of revolutionary mosquitoes,” writes Winegard, “her battlefield prowess in support of the slave rebellion in Haiti forced Napoleon to sell his North American lands.” As he notes, the Louisiana Purchase that followed saw France give up a quest for American colonies and doubled the landmass of America overnight.

However, Napoleon learned from his defeat in Haiti. And at Walcheren, in 1809, Napoleon drew attacking and superior British forces into a marshland where they perished so miserably from contracting malaria that they couldn’t fight on. But, writes Winegard, Napoleon’s biological tactic also “ushered in the worst epidemic of malaria that Europe had ever seen.” When a defeated Napoleon was sent into final exile in 1815, the British ship Musquito guarded over him.

Perhaps the most compelling portion of Winegard’s narrative is his discussion of African slavery and how it changed everything in the Americas. He tells the story of NFL defensive back Ryan Clark, Jr. who fell ill on a team plane and was later diagnosed with sickle-cell disease. One in twelve African Americans have sickle cell trait, and, according to Winegard, “Advanced by natural selection, sickle cell is a hereditary genetic mutation passed on precisely because it was originally a net benefit to the people who carried it…The evolutionary design that nearly killed Ryan Clark was initially a lifesaving human genetic adaptation.” It provided Africans with the trait with almost total immunity from some forms of malaria.

According to Winegard, such immunity only made the African slave value grow, as it allowed colonists to not only settle in, especially in the Deep South, but to expand empires of cotton and sugar. He notes:

…African slaves were relatively unafflicted by malaria and yellow fever, and simply did not die at the same rate as non-Africans. Their genetic immunities and prior seasoning made Africans an important ingredient of the Columbian Exchange and indispensable in the development of New World mercantilist economic markets.

The slave ships brought wi\th them the anopheles and aedes mosquitoes, which would prove sop lethal to both the colonial and indigenous peoples of the Americas. Winegard’s observations about the interplay of the mercantile development of the New World with slavery and malaria is long and fascinating.

Probably the only white hat Hero introduced in the narrative is the discovery, almost by accident, of quinine. Winegard writes, “Quinine was a New World treatment for an Old World disease. The disease itself, and its vectoring mosquitoes, were born of Africa and the Old World and were transported to the New World, where they flourished.” Coffee, chrysanthemums and, my favorite, gin and tonics, are all known to stave off malaria. And Big Pharma has some cures too. But mosquitoes and malaria are still very much with us.

The murderous disease-bearing mozzies are still with us 200 million years later, driving us nuts at night as we try to sleep, and making us wonder how that 190 million-old buzz, which has us slapping out, could be an evolutionary advantage rather than the taunt it seems. We are still fending them off the same old ways– with smoke, nets, drained swamps, and anti-disease medications. Not only do they still bring malaria in most parts of the world, they now carry the Zika virus, Eastern equine encephalitis, and many other potentially deadly viruses. Scientists continue to remind us that we are overdue for a mosquito-borne pandemic, with amplified effects due to climate change extending breeding seasons.

Some scientists believe that the succubus’ quarter-of-a-billion years reign is enough and it’s time for things to change. Enter CRISPR and the notion that we can genetically modify “humanity’s most dangerous predator.” But there are worries: we’d be messing with nature; we can’t yet guarantee something disastrously unforseen wouldn’t occur. What if we somehow — in our Lamarckian chutzpah — made our most dangerous predator stronger? Or created a real-life Jurassic Park (amber-bound mosquitoes do exist)?

I have mixed visions of Octavia Butler’s “Blood Child;” the recent movie Mosquito-Man (which sucked); and being shown as a child how to make a mozzie pop by squeezing the skin around their proboscis as they sucked — until they exploded, like a gory scene from Scanners. They bring out our latent sadism.

The Mosquito is a fascinating account of a primordial predator — seen almost-empathetically, by Winegard, through the lens of Great Man theory. It is unique in that sense. But it is also overwhelming in its comprehensive claim that mosquitoes were lurking in so many watershed moments of history. You follow his Hum-eric narrative, wowed by the endless stream of Anopheles triumphs that Winegard cites. Then, frankly, scepticism sets in. You seek out secondary sources, and discover that his claims are largely valid. It seemed, at first, a narrative gimmick — the Life and Times of General Anopheles — but ends up a revelation; Hitchcock’s birds eye view..

The Mosquito is yet another reminder to the reader that we live in a world where we don’t really call the shots and never have. We like to tell ourselves sagas of how Men Have Come Seen and Conquered, and sit around vain bonfires telling tales of our Darwinian conquests. But Winegard replaces our historical agents — our manly Caesars and Odysseuses — with female mosquitoes, buzzy little valkyries with a high-pitched nasal drawls. Imagine a civil war won not so much by guns and stratagems, but by reactions to diseased mosquito bites and the requirements of care to ensuing sickness. As Winegard reminds us, half of all human beings who have ever lived suffered “mosquito-inflicted deaths.” Heil Hit-ya, General Anopheles — thwack!

I received this book in exchange for a honest review from NetGalley.

This was an excellent book filled with interesting fact and cool information about the ways that the mosquito have influenced history. This book was also painfully slow to get through. I enjoyed it the whole time it was just so packed with information that to really absorb it all I had to move slowly through it.

A far ranging history of the mosquito's role in shaping societal development. While primarily focused on war and larger events, Winegard's understanding of historical circumstances and situations is well researched and developed. I was concerned when I first started reading that Winegard would suggest that history was 'simply' shaped by the mosquito and the diseases it carries. Thankfully, he did no such thing. Extenuating historical circumstances were discussed in addition to the mosquito's role. Overall, a well written book that looks at a large range of historical events.

I actually have two different star ratings. The beginning of the book was quite interesting, and was really holding my attention. I would have rated the first part of the book 4+ stars. However, after a time, the author began bogging the whole work down with military history and movements. I was looking for a more epidemiology/science-based book. Being a huge history lover as well though, I tried to keep trudging through the book. However, I eventually became so exhausted with reading about military events, I had to eventually abandon the book. At that point, I would give the book a rating of 2 stars or less, hence my averaged rating of 3 stars.

#netgalley

This is a history book. I have seen a number of reviews complaining that the book is not science. This is not a secret, see the title. It is not a science book. It isn't even really a history of science book, though that is a bit of an undercurrent in several of the chapters.

This is a thoroughly researched history of the mosquito's effects on world history, through their disease vectoring, especially of malaria and yellow fever.

Winegard begins by explaining how sickle cell disease, thalassemia, and Duffy negativity are all genetic disorders that provide some protection against different kinds of malaria, and each is generally found in people from Africa, North Africa and the Mediterranean and Middle East, and across parts of India and SE Asia--the original areas where malarias were common.

And then he jumps into history. From African tribal kingdoms, the Egpytians, the Mongols, Hannibal, and Alexander the Great right to World War II and DDT, malarial drug resistance, and the new resurgence in malarias worldwide.

There is a lot here, and a lot of historical context and military history. I did find it a little annoying that he writes as though mosquitos have agency ("General Anopheles"). They don't--they are not on anyone's "side", they don't "decide" to destroy an army or group of settlers. They are insects.

He also comes to the conclusion that the only way to eliminate malaria will be to eradicate mosquitos completely, and implies that there "might" be unexpected consequences. I have to believe research has been done on how many bats, birds, frogs, fish, lizards, and other animals depend on mosquitos and their larvae as a food source. It should have been included.

Otherwise, though, excellent book! This is definitely a contender for my annual nonfiction-book-for-dad next Christmas.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. Normally I do not read a lot of non-fiction, however this past year I have really started to read more of it and have been really impressed. The Mosquito by Timothy C. Winegard is incredible. This pesky insect is tied to many facets of human life- and death. It has crushed landscapes and crushed economics. Something I was unaware of is, only the females bite.
From long ago to present day the mosquito has been partly responsible for shaping the world we live in. This book is fast-paced and I highly recommend it. I look forward to future books by this author.

My entire Goodreads review reads as follows: Dense but fascinating!

However, to comply with the minimum review length, I will add that I recommended it to my book club peeps and to one of the history teachers at my school.

About the Author:

Dr. Timothy C. Winegard is a military historian who graduated from Oxford University with a PhD and is currently a professor of history and political science at Colorado Mesa University. He is best known for his works on military history however, he has written on the subject of indigenous studies. Before becoming a best-selling writer, Dr. Winegard worked as a military officer with his native Canadians and later the British forces. He is a  sports fan and stalwart supporter of his favorite teams: the Detroit Lions and the Detroit Red Wings. Despite his busy schedule, the good doctor likes to spend his down time with his family at home.

Who is the target audience?

If you gravitate to the nonfiction, history, evolution, or similar shelves in your local bookshop, you may enjoy the exquisite prose and comprehensive research in The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator.  

What is this book about?

The story of The Mosquito spans thousands of years beginning with the evolution of the insect that plagues our lives to this day. Dr. Winegard’s writing style is reminiscent of Guns, Germs, and Steel or even a Simon Winchester.  The focus of the book is the intimate relationship that mosquitos and humans have shared over time, and the impact on humanities antiquity and on its future. The book is abundant in superlative research and in witty humor. By the end of the book you will be in no doubt as to the destruction this tiny insect has wrought across the human world throughout history. You will learn a plethora of facts and information through a skillful scientific style of writing. Timothy gives you the big picture, a map of the problem that allows you to trace the changes to human existence shaped by the illnesses spread by one of our most dangerous predators. 

Conclusion:

The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator, By Timothy C. Winegard is a masterfully written book, being both fascinating and funny. Mosquito is jam packed with in-depth and informed research. It is epic in its breadth, and chronicled with skill. Ultimately, the book is infinitely entertaining, educational, and surprising at times. The book does prompt the thought that humanity believes itself to be top of the food chain, but are we really when such a tiny combatant can wreak such havoc? 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following: Penguin Group Dutton, Dr. Timothy C. Winegard, and NetGalley for allowing me to review this book.

I was hesitantly curious about reading this, I mean how interesting can a book about mosquitoes be? Very, is the answer. This was not dry or boring at all, I learned much more than I thought I would and enjoyed the book immensely. I would highly recommend to anyone that enjoys narrative nonfiction and/or history.

I featured this title on my blog and will provide details and a link to the publisher in the next step of this process.

We tend to think of the mosquito as an annoying presence in our lives unless we live in areas known for malaria. But with the outbreaks of Zika, Dengue and a multitude of other mosquito borne illness affecting our lives it behooves us to reexamine the impact mosquitos have had on the history of mankind. Timothy Winegard does just this in this fascinating, exhaustive exploration of the mosquito and how it has shaped our world both past and present.

I was browsing NetGalley for new titles to branch out my reading and I came across this book and immediately my interest was peaked. I have always been interested by natural histories, especially ones written in narrative form. This book tells the story of how mosquitoes shaped historical events from the dawn of civilization to the current day and that concept sounds so interesting.

Since I have never written a review of a non-fiction book this review will probably be a little shorter than my other fiction book reviews. I have requested and been accepted for several other non-fiction ARCs in the coming months, so I hope with practice these reviews will increase in quality.

My first comment about the book was the length. While I knew going in that it would take me a longer time getting though it, I had no idea how long it would take. I started this book on July 19th, believing it would be done well before the release date of August 6th. Now, a month later I realize that these books take a lot more time than I thought. It was impossible for me to read more than a chapter a day. Each one was maybe 30 pages, but they took about an hour and a half each. The text was quite dense and several times a page I would have to retrace my steps and read paragraphs again.

The writing wasn’t bad my any means, it was actually quite interesting to read this book and I learned so much about general history that I didn’t know before. This book was not a very specific subject either, as it traces the history of mosquitoes along the history of our species. It lightly brushed on each subject but also allowed for an indepth discussion. That being said it was very repetitive by the end of the book. If felt like all the chapters went as follows: Army goes to new place, foreign mosquitoes descend, army runs in defeat as up to 90% of soldiers are sick and dying. This happens in Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Colonization period and American Civil War. It became so bad that I actually stopped paying attention to the mosquito portions of the book and focused on the historical happenings and the rich descriptions.

I don’t know if my rating is going to make any sense but, as I enjoyed the history in the book and learned a lot from it, I don’t want to rate this book really low. Overall, the mosquito portions of the book were a 2, but with the history and the writing style I am bumping it up to a 3.5 stars.

Do you want to see me review more non-fiction? Is there anything I could add to improve these reviews? Leave a comment down below and Happy Reading.

3.5 stars.

Some of you know that for my day job I work for a research center that studies tropical diseases so when I saw Timothy Winegard's new book on Netgalley I thought this might be an interesting read and give me a nice overview of a vector species for my job.

I'm sure mosquitoes were covered in my invertebrate biology course in college, but I don't remember much though from the papers I read at work there are some interesting facts. A few years ago I read The History of the Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee which filled in some of the gaps in my genetic knowledge and I hoped this book would provide similar information. However, unlike Mukherjee, Winegard is a historian and not a scientist. Therefore, The Mosquito does not really focus on the science or the history of mosquito science.

It is still an enjoyable and educating read. I just wanted you to know if you are looking more for science history, this may not be what you are looking for. But if you want a comprehensive overview of how the mosquito and the diseases it spreads has shaped world history, then you have found the right book.

Early on I suspected that Winegard's area of historical expertise was military. There is a lot of focus on wars throughout history, starting in antiquity and going through the Vietnam War. Often there were large sections when the mosquito wasn't even mentioned.

While I enjoy history, I don't care so much about battles. Especially when early battles just seemed like the next verse of the same song. The wars of Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, etc could pretty much be summed up as: sought world domination, stretched themselves too far from the homeland (making reinforcements and supplies difficult to receive), camped in a marsh, battle fatigued soldiers were easy targets of mosquitoes and succumbed to the diseases they transmitted.

That doesn't mean there aren't some interesting facts sprinkled throughout these ancient battles that I at times found tedious to read about. Like the elongated heads we associate with the Huns was a result of babies having their heads strapped between two boards. Why? I don't know as that wasn't discussed.

As it has been more than 20 years since I took a history course, I was reminded of quite a few events and individuals that I had forgotten. And in this era of fake news, it's important to remember our history lessons.

At times, The Mosquito read more like a textbook rather than a book for the general public. And while the title is catchy, the book does not solely focus on the mosquito. Actually, I feel that it is more diseases that shaped history, and Winegard often details the effect of yellow fever and malaria on historical outcomes. Without the viruses and parasites transmitted by the mosquito, it would be harmless. Without the mosquito would these viruses and parasites (like yellow fever and malaria) have been transmitted to humans? I think that something else would have evolved to transmit these diseases.

As Winegard points out in his acknowledgments, the mosquito and its transmitted diseases are often ignored in history. In my history courses, the outcomes of historical events weren't attributed to the mosquito. Occasionally illness was given consideration as a contributing factor, but even then I think it was more related to unsanitary conditions than say yellow fever. Influenza (namely the pandemic of 1918) and bubonic plague (the Black Death) gets some attention in the history books, but others not so much. Yellow fever is just a footnote in American history as one of the many hardships colonists faced.

As someone who works to bring attention to these less known diseases and the insects that transmit them, I'm excited about this book. Whether battles were won or lost, economies flourished or failed was largely based on a pesky little insect that we annoyingly swat away during our summer outdoor activities. Winegard does a good job emphasizing the importance of continued research for mosquito control and malarial treatment.

As we know, history often repeats itself and the mosquito could be the small, but mighty, warrior that proves to be the downfall of the human race. Don't believe me? Then pick up this book.

Review will be published on August 9 at Girl Who Reads - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2019/08/the-mosquito-human-history-of-our.html

Microhistory is taking over the nonfiction market, and the newest addition, Timothy Winegard’s The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator is a perfect example of the intriguing subgenre. If you’re not familiar with “microhistory”, it is a relatively new trend that takes a specific subject and tracks it throughout (usually) the history of the world. Examples are Mark Kurlansky’s books Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, Salt: A World History, and Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas. (If this subgenre interests you or you now realize, like me, that you love these kinds of books, take a look through Book Riot’s terrific list of 50 must-read microhistories.)

Timothy Winegard’s brand new The Mosquito is a great addition to the realm of microhistory in a couple of different ways. First, it’s surprising that this book has not already been written, considering the popularity of microhistory and the importance of mosquitoes in world history, as Winegard deftly explains in the book. Also, there is simply a great wealth of historical information in this book, all told through the lens of the mosquito but branching out in many surprising directions. I have not thought about mosquitoes the same way since reading this book, and that is part of the point. I don’t even remember Kurlansky’s Milk! affecting me in quite the same way. However (and this is a big “however” that I will deal with in detail below), I found several historical assertions or bits of information in The Mosquito that were either overstated or flat incorrect. This has really colored my perception of the book, and it has something I have been sifting through mentally for weeks now.

But first, the good. Winegard is a skilled writer that knows how to weave a good historical narrative. He also makes a great case for his main thesis, which is essentially that the mosquito, a tiny insect that can be swatted in an instant, might have had the greatest influence on world history of any non-human entity. Winegard states that some researchers have estimated mosquitoes are responsible for the death of almost half the humans that have ever lived. Even as diseases like malaria and yellow fever have either disappeared or been isolated to certain world regions, mosquitoes kill more humans per year than any other being, including other humans (if you, like Winegard, don’t count abortions, but I digress).

Winegard weaves the story of the mosquito through all* of world history, from speculation about whether mosquitos were responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs to modern attempts to eradicate mosquito-borne diseases. The breadth of time covered is outstanding, considering the speculative nature of the subject as you go further back in history. Winegard is not afraid to speculate and give an idea of where the scholarship is on a specific question, like what killed the dinosaurs or the positive effects of the marshes on Ancient Rome’s defensive capabilities. He even has a very interesting theory about how mosquitoes aided in the spread of Christianity because the religion “preached care for the sick as a recognized Christian duty.” This analysis of the mosquito from every angle and its effect on several major movements and developments in world history makes The Mosquito a very useful source for anyone interested in history.
*(“All” is more a reference to the time periods the book covers and not the regions of the world. The Mosquito is very focused on Western civilization to the detriment of almost any discussion of Africa or Asia. There is a 10-page chapter on the Mongols, but that’s it. I got excited when one page had an illustration of Japanese treatments for mosquito-borne diseases, but there was no mention of Japan on that page or anywhere else in the book. However, I am willing to give Winegard a slight pass on the Eurocentric nature of the book because I’m sure it is more difficult to work with non-Western sources of this nature and he is writing a mass-market history book, not an academic one. I would have just loved to see China, India, Japan, or any African country get a little bit of love.)

One specific positive of Winegard’s book is his writing style. He is able to tell stories well and injects humor often in order to make his points. One example sticks out to me, when writing about Herodotus’ narrative of Egyptian treatments for malaria:
(Herodotus) also reveals that the prevailing Egyptian practice for treating malarial fevers was to bathe in fresh human urine. Having never contracted malaria, I can only assume that its symptoms are so unbearably severe that a pampering soak in sparkling, steaming urine issuing from your thoughtful and upstanding servants is worth a shot for some well-deserved relief.

Not only can that excerpt be laugh-out-loud funny depending on your style of humor, but the words he uses are evocative and almost disturbing, which is a good thing when you are describing the horrific things Winegard relays in The Mosquito.

For all these reasons, I wanted to love The Mosquito. And part of me did. But I had some serious problems with multiple portions of Winegard’s historical examples and analyses. So here comes the negativity.

I was rolling along very happily in the book until I reached the chapter on mosquitoes and the development of Christianity. Winegard makes several great points, including one about how Constantine’s decree did not make Christianity the official religion but instead simply proclaimed religious toleration for Christianity. But then he makes statement that is simply and completely incorrect. He writes:
In 325, Constantine went one step further at the Council of Nicaea. To placate the adherents of the diverse and assorted polytheistic and Christian factions, and end religious purges, he blended their beliefs into one faith. Constantine ratified the Nicene Creed and the concept of the Holy Trinity, opening the doors for the compilation of the current Bible and modern Christian doctrine.

OK. This lights a fire under me specifically, but let’s look at it factually. This connection between Christianity and polytheistic factions in Europe is pointed out often, and no doubt some syncretism occurred in areas large and small. Christian practices incorporated polytheistic practices all over Europe, the most obvious of which is seen in Western Christmas traditions, but syncretism between Christianity and European polytheism did not ever reach the level of universal church doctrine. Councils like Nicaea were convened to ensure this. Both points Winegard makes here, about the Biblical canon and the Trinity, are listed under “Misconceptions” in the Council of Nicaea article on Wikipedia. (Yes, I know, Wikipedia is not a great source for research, but major articles are reliable and it is a good jumping off point for research. If Winegard had consulted Wikipedia at all instead of whatever sources he is spuriously using here, he would have seen sources to rebut his narrative and would not have made this mistake.)The Biblical canon had, essentially but not officially, been formed far before the Council of Nicaea, and the source of the misconception that it was formed at Nicaea is a pseudo-historical account by Voltaire. And, although the doctrine of the Trinity was formally put forward by Christians at least as early as the second century, it was not officially decided upon in the Catholic Church until after Nicaea and as far as we know the Trinity was not discussed at Nicaea. The focus instead was on the deity of Christ.
A mistake in one excerpt isn’t a huge deal. Then, in the aforementioned chapter on the Mongols, Winegard mentions that they had begun to conquer large swaths of eastern Europe and infers that mosquitoes were a major reason that the Mongols failed to conquer western Europe. He makes no allusion to the real reason they turned back: Ogedei Khan died, and there was a struggle for power, so Batu and his army abandoned the war in order to join the struggle to elect a successor back in the empire’s center. Could mosquito-borne diseases be a reason that they never returned? Possibly. But the lack of detail hurts the credibility of Winegard’s narrative.

Then I encountered a very problematic passage that made me rethink a lot of what Winegard has to say. In the chapter on the American Revolution, he makes this statement:
In December 1773, shortly after the ratification of the Tea Act, a strategic yet spiteful band of the Sons of Liberty disguised only in blankets and lampblack (not in the mythical Mohawk Indian regalia commonly portrayed) heaved 342 chests containing 90,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor during their Tea Party.

Wait, the colonists weren’t dressed as Mohawks like I’ve heard for my entire life? This is big news, so I looked for a source. None in the notes in the back of the book. Google is up next. Can’t find anything. I can literally find no source to back up Winegard’s American-history-altering statement. Usually you can find a source on the internet that says anything, you just have to weigh competing sources to find the most likely answer. Not in this case. It’s possible I can’t find whatever source he is referencing here, but everything I could find upholds the fact that some of the Sons of Liberty were wearing Indian garb. Not all of them, and not all in full native headdresses as commonly portrayed, but definitely in Indian dress. (Hey look, I’m actually including a link to my source to back up what I’m saying, and the source includes quotes from actual eyewitnesses to the event.) I welcome Winegard’s rebuttal and would love to see his sourcing, but this really bothered me.

After the Boston Tea Party sourcing fiasco, I went back to a couple other things that stood out to me earlier in the book, specifically a story about Alexander the Great’s death. Winegard explained the scholarship around Alexander’s death as coming around to the fact that he died of malaria (a mosquito-borne disease), but my little bit of research turned up that still no one is sure of the cause, and a new study suggests a completely new cause and a date of death six days later than previously thought.

So this series of issues bothers me for two major reasons: 1) Winegard shows a tendency toward the earth-shattering cynical view that disregards what years of scholarship portray. While this is sometimes healthy and something I even tend toward at times, it becomes dangerous when the breadth of research doesn’t support and you don’t give any source for what you are saying. That means no one can check your facts and they just have to take your word for it. 2) These major factual errors mean it is difficult to believe anything surprising that is said in the 400+ pages of this book. You have to do the work to double-check, as I did many times but not all the time, in order to know if a statement is true or if it is poorly-sourced.

I’ve been wrestling with what to do with The Mosquito for weeks now. I really do think a lot of it is beneficial to an understanding of world history, as Winegard makes very good arguments that the mosquito is much, much more important to an understanding of major conflicts and world historical developments than it is given credit for. However, I cannot overlook the factual errors and misrepresentations within the text. Someone who knows world history better than me could probably find even more, and as a mass-market history book I don’t think most people would see the errors and question some of them. We will probably have people running around saying that the Sons of Liberty didn’t wear Indian garb to the Boston Tea Party, and that is just not true. But they’ll think it is because they read it in a history book from a major publisher. I hope someone else writes this book or there is a second edition after it is read and revised by several historians. But in its current form, I won’t recommend it to my students and I can’t recommend it to you, reader, unless you want to do the work of checking everything that doesn’t seem right.
I’m always a take-the-meat-and-spit-out-the-bones person, but sometimes the danger of getting hurt by the bones of “alternative facts” outweighs the benefit of the meat.

I received this book as an eARC courtesy of Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley, but obviously my opinions are my own.

***I was granted an ARC of this via Netgalley from the publisher.***

From the mosquitos possible impact on the extinction of the dinosaurs, to the famous battlefields of history and the scientific advancements made to stop their spread of disease, readers will be given an engaging account of the mosquitos silent war against humanity.

You can find my full review here:
https://openlettersreview.com/posts/mosquito-by-timothy-winegard

Rating: 4 stars. Would recommend to a friend.

The Outsize Role of the Mosquito in the Sweep of Human History

For a tiny insect the mosquito has had a major role in shaping human history. Yellow Fever, Dengue Fever, Malaria, West Nile Virus, and other diseases are caused by agents injected into the human host by one or another of the species of mosquitoes in the environment. The early chapters of the book give a graphic description of the diseases and suffering. It makes you want to wear protective gear when going outside in the summer.

For centuries it was unclear that the mosquito was responsible for the scourge of diseases that wrecked havoc with armies and empires. The American Revolution saw Washington’s army as well as the British ransacked by malaria. The scourge of the Civil War and building the Panama Canal was Yellow Fever.

One of the protections against malaria is sickle cell anemia, a mutation of the blood cells that survived in Africa because it gave protection to the person. Unfortunately, sickle cell itself is a killer, as the author points out.

I enjoyed this book. It’s full of historical information about the interaction between mosquitoes and humans. The writing is clear and subject matter so interesting you want to keep reading. I highly recommend this book if you want to learn more about how the environment can affect civilization.

I received this book from Dutton for this review.

I have absolutely enjoyed this book. It's amazing how we've never considered the impact the mosquito has had on our history, and now Timothy Wingard is letting us in on the truth. In The Mosquito he teaches us that the rise and fall of empires wasn't just affected by the wins of emperors and the falls of greats, but it was also totally influenced by one tiny, annoying insect that just happens to be our deadliest predator. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a scientific approach to history.

The Mosquito is a compilation of sorts. It not only tells the history of mosquitoes and the damage they have done throughout the centuries, but also how we got to where society and culture is, based on this annoying little bug. The book includes pictures of different types of mosquitoes, what sort of attributes to look for, etc.

I found this book fascinating. There were so many things I didn't realize that history was shaped by, one of which being a blood-sucking bug. The Mosquito is informative, astounding and, at times, even a little frightening.

But mostly, this book opened my eyes to things I never would have conceived of. And honestly, that's the best type of book. My dad's birthday was two months ago, and it looks like this will have to be a late birthday present. It's just the sort of book he loves. (And me too!)

5/5 Stars

A fascinating expose on this overlooked insect and the damage it has wrought since the time of the dinosaurs. I walked away from this book with a much better understanding of the role mosquitoes play in the theater of our existence, as well as a healthy dose of respect.

A special thank you to Netgalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.