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The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 941
Edition: 1
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Riverhead Trade
Manufacturer: Riverhead Trade
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: October 02, 2007
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Studio: Riverhead Trade
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Editorial Review:
A thrilling historical account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London-and a brilliant exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease, cities, science, and the modern world.
From the dynamic thinker routinely compared to Malcolm Gladwell, E. O. Wilson, and James Gleick, The Ghost Map is a riveting page-turner with a real-life historical hero that brilliantly illuminates the intertwined histories of the spread of viruses, rise of cities, and the nature of scientific inquiry. These are topics that have long obsessed Steven Johnson, and The Ghost Map is a true triumph of the kind of multidisciplinary thinking for which he's become famous-a book that, like the work of Jared Diamond, presents both vivid history and a powerful and provocative explanation of what it means for the world we live in.
The Ghost Map takes place in the summer of 1854. A devastating cholera outbreak seizes London just as it is emerging as a modern city: more than 2 million people packed into a ten-mile circumference, a hub of travel and commerce, teeming with people from all over the world, continually pushing the limits of infrastructure that's outdated as soon as it's updated. Dr. John Snow-whose ideas about contagion had been dismissed by the scientific community-is spurred to intense action when the people in his neighborhood begin dying. With enthralling suspense, Johnson chronicles Snow's day-by-day efforts, as he risks his own life to prove how the epidemic is being spread.
When he creates the map that traces the pattern of outbreak back to its source, Dr. Snow didn't just solve the most pressing medical riddle of his time. He ultimately established a precedent for the way modern city-dwellers, city planners, physicians, and public officials think about the spread of disease and the development of the modern urban environment.
The Ghost Map is an endlessly compelling and utterly gripping account of that London summer of 1854, from the microbial level to the macrourban-theory level-including, most important, the human level.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Can We See the Actual Map?
Steven Johnson's book, The Ghost Map, tells the story of how a doctor, John Snow, and a local minister, Henry Whitehead, worked together to combat an outbreak of cholera in their London neighborhood. They did so by conducting on the spot investigation which allowed them to demonstrate that the cholera was being transmitted through the water supply at the Broad Street pump. This demonstration was illustrated through the famous "ghost map" that showed the cluster of illness around the pump which, ... Read More
Rating:  - Where were the editors?
I just finished Steven Johnson's "Ghost Map". Not to be rude, but how does this stuff get published? For Pete's sake, the name of the book is ghost map, and there is not even a copy of the ghost map in the book.
The book itself lacks any kind of literary punch. Ostensibly about John Snow and cholera, in which there is probably an interesting story if told with focus, Johnson rambles pointlessly around campy urban planning doggerel.
I guess Johnson's reputation is so ... Read More
Rating:  - One of the most interesting books that I have read in a long time
In the summer of 1854, the Soho neighborhood of London was struck by a devastating outbreak of Cholera. Public officials and medical experts, who were stuck in the conventional wisdom that disease was caused by harmful "miasmas," looked in all the wrong places for the cause of the epidemic. But, there was one man who challenged the consensus of scientists and turned the entire understanding of diseases on its head - Dr. John Snow. This is the story of one man's bravery in using his brain, and letting ... Read More
Rating: - Clever story marred by trendy theorizing
It's almost superfluous for me to review Ghost Map, a best-seller with its own webpage and Wikipedia article. So I will be brief. Steven Johnson is clever writer, a young man whose thought provoking story of the London cholera epidemic of 1854 contains a number of profitable ironies and digressions.
The weakness of the book--which no doubt many enthusiasts regard as a strength--is that Johnson is so consumed with communicating Big Ideas that the narrative peters out before the end of ... Read More
Rating: - Medical / Health Related Sleuths of the Origin and Cause of a Cholera Epidemic in London in the 1800s.
This book is an excellent and detailed look into the work of a few men who worked to try to solve the cause of a cholera outbreak in London.
It shows how the principal investigator used logic and reasoning and investigation skills to try to solve the mystery of what was causing the outbreak. It also goes into competing theories and theorists and the ultimate resolution of the cause of it.
The book is on balance an excellent one. I recommend it to anyone interested in medical ... Read More
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