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Reviews

“In Bad Nature, McCumber’s incisive and often witty account of three distinct rat problems nibbles at the edges of human-animal dynamics. The humble rat becomes a scapegoat for moral panics and social anxieties, reflecting cultural boundaries and social inequalities. The book reveals rats as potent symbols at the border between order and disorder, us and them, and we learn much from McCumber about how people seek to assert control over chaos. Who are the real pests in these cultural dramas? Spoiler: it’s not always the rats.” -- Terence McDonnell, University of Notre Dame “Some animals get documentaries; others get exterminators. But why? In this fresh and compelling exploration, McCumber blends rigorous data with sharp social analysis to ask a question as strange as it is important: Who’s the real problem—us or the rats? This original work positions McCumber as a leading voice in the cultural study of human-animal relationships.”  -- Justin Farrell, Yale University

Author Information

Andrew McCumber is assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Tech University. His research on cultural meaning and nature has previously been published in journals including Sociological Forum, Cultural Sociology, and Poetics, along with interdisciplinary outlets such as Environmental Humanities and Nature + Culture.  

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