The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World | 
 enlarge | Author: Steven Johnson
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Category: Book
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Rating:  100 reviews
Sales Rank: 217839
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.8
Dewey Decimal Number: 941
Publication Date: October 2, 2007
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Product Description
This thrilling historical account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London is a brilliant exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease, cities, science, and the modern world. Unabridged. 8 CDs.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 95 more reviews...
 Fascinating: A look at the past, A look into the future. October 29, 2006
Peter Senese (Los Angeles, California)
94 out of 101 found this review helpful
This is surprisingly, one fascinating and important read that spins the historical reality of pathogenic disease with a well crafted story regarding the plight of a society facing a treacherous epidemic. Combining an in-depth view regarding the indefatigable energy and brilliance of Dr. John Snow in his quest to solve the deadliest outbreak of cholera in the history of London, with the history of epidemic plagues, `The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic- And How it Changed Cities, Science, and The Modern World' provided me with one page-turning, gripping historical tale that also provided further insight into the plight free societies face today in lieu of the possabilities of biological or chemical attacks on innocent people.
When I was recommended to read Steven Johnson's book, it was not for the sake of diving into a good read, but rather to `browse' through it for further insight on the origins of water contamination and how, thru these origins, terrorist could look at contamination for horrific purposes. As a writer with an interest in international affairs, and a tendency to use fiction storytelling to share my views, I opened Steven Johnson's book and within pages was completely hooked on this extraordinarily written, well researched tell all of the London epidemic of cholera that killed so many lives.
With reflection on how science viewed pathogenic outbreaks during the midpoint of the 19th Century, it was startling to find that there really existed a classification system that gave all sorts of bizarre reasons why a disease would spread, including a weight based upon wealth and financial disposition! We sure have come a long way . . . or have we? I guess we can still look at Africa with great outrage and clearly say we're back in London during 1854! And this folks is important: in Johnson's attempt to share the history of the past, what he really is doing is talking about the immediate needs of to protect the most impoverished with assistance to medical treatment, and ongoing diligence to understand the nature of disease and how wide-spread health concerns effect not only those who are directly in contact with a pathogenic, but equally as important: how societies infrastructure's essentially crumble when epidemic disease spreads.
Writing with such an easy style that readers will not get lost, Johnson takes us on a fascinating trip with Dr. John Snow; clearly one of the scientific pioneers whose actions have saved the lives of untold people. Take your time and sit back with `The Ghost Map': it may bring you a bit closer to acting in a socially responsible way that connects all of us a bit further. It may even cause you to open your wallet and send a few much needed dollars to health care organizations attempting to follow the lead of Dr. Snow: determining pathogenic causes and feverishly attempting to help those in need. Steven Johnson's `The Ghost Map' is simply brilliant.
History With A Warning November 13, 2006
John D. Cofield
30 out of 31 found this review helpful
The Ghost Map is an engrossing tale of medical detection and discovery. In 1854 a London neighborhood was suddenly plunged into a massive cholera epidemic. The actual disease was awful enough, but ignorance added to the fear felt by Londoners, because no one understood the true method by which cholera spread from one victim to another. Prevailing medical opinion held that cholera, like nearly all other diseases, was spread through miasmas, bad air and bad smells.
Two men, Dr. John Snow and Rev. Henry Whitehead, began to suspect that the true culprit was water from the neighborhood pump and conducted an assiduous investigation that finally proved them right. Although most doctors and scientists were reluctant to discard the miasma theory, eventually the weight of the evidence convinced them that Snow and Whitehead were correct.
Like all good histories, The Ghost Map branches from the main story to trace the many different ways in which Snow and Whitehead's investigations helped lead to the development of modern cities. I especially enjoyed the final chapters and epilogue, in which Johnson identifies many ways in which our modern mega-cities are both more vulnerable (yet thanks to technology and communications safer and better able to cope with threats as well) than was London in 1854.
The Ghost Map is an engrossing read, well written, scholarly, yet dramatic too. It will appeal to historians and fans of medical detection alike.
One of the most interesting books that I have read in a long time June 25, 2008
Kurt A. Johnson (Marseilles, Illinois, USA)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
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 the facts speak for themselves, even when those in power didn't want to hear it.
I must say that this is one of the most interesting books that I have read in a long time. The author does an excellent job of bringing that long-ago era back to life for the reader. I think that he did an excellent job of telling the story of Dr. Snow and the epidemic in an interesting way, avoiding the temptation to write the narrative in a dull, academic manner.
Plus, I was so intrigued by how history repeats itself over and over again. Could it happen again where a "consensus of scientists" can be used to trump meaningful, unbiased inquiry? Oh yeah!
This is a great book, one that I think will interest anyone interested in diseases and history, or indeed anyone who likes a good story. I loved this book, and no not hesitate to give it my highest recommendations!
The individual contribution still matters. January 10, 2008
Atheen M. Wilson (Mpls, MN United States)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Steven Johnson's book, The Ghost Map, is an excellent example of the early application of logic and the scientific method to a practical problem. The author makes it clear that what seemed in principal a logical conclusion with respect to the transmission of disease--bad air--and the application of remedies based on it, was unable to help society advance in the sphere of public health. Without basing decisions on solid data, efforts to improve the well being of society at all levels were almost hopeless, sometimes even detrimental, and more expensive. While the cleaning up of sewage from streets and especially dwellings was a definite improvement in overall living conditions it was a major undertaking and a huge expense. The actual amelioration of the cholera outbreak, which ultimately took some 10,000 lives, disrupted many a family, and disturbed London's emotional and financial well-being, only required the simple closure of a single pump by removing its handle.
It was also gratifying to see how much a single individual with a clear concept of method, a dedicated effort to data collection, and dogged perseverance could actually contribute substantially to the betterment of mankind. The individual does count.
Johnson also makes clear in his discourse on the subject just how much science progresses in tandem with other aspects of technology and social behavior. Author James Burke made this point very clearly and quite entertainingly in his BBC series Connections 1 in the 1980s. While Snow may have traced the transmission of cholera by way of a specific contaminated pump, he could only demonstrate the veracity of his conjecture with information acquired by others, most notably the compilation of mortality lists collected for another purpose altogether. In short the need of society for data for one purpose was found to be useful for another. Even the episode of cholera itself had arisen because of changes in technology itself, namely the provision of pump water to neighborhoods, and the recent introduction of private flush toilets in middle and upper class homes.
Apparent also from the narrative was the fact that despite shortcomings and even bad decisions made during a career in public service, a dedicated public servant can contribute major positive advances that only become apparent in retrospect. While the London public health administrator was wrong headed in some of his decisions, his overall push for improving the conditions of his fellow Londoners, rich and poor alike, had significant positive consequences for the future. While he was wrong headed because of the defects in the knowledge base of his time, his intentions were good and so was the ultimate outcome. Again, the individual does make a difference.
Cholera and a New View of Cities December 1, 2006
R. Hardy (Columbus, Mississippi USA)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
We look at the cities of the world now, cities in which around half the population of the world lives, and it seems as if such huge masses of population were simply inevitable. This was not always the case. Even in the nineteenth century, London, for instance, might not have turned out to be a going concern. Basic problems like disposing of human waste from a population concentrated into a small space had not been solved, and maybe they were not going to be, with people reverting back to an agricultural and spread-out life. In a city with such a poor sewage removal system, infectious diseases thrived, the worst of them all being cholera. When an epidemic hit the city in 1854, it must have seemed to many that whatever were the advantages of city life, urban existence was doomed. In _The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - And How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World_ (Riverhead Books), Steven Johnson charts the cholera outbreak and the men who, without knowing about the germ that causes the disease, found how it was spread and how to stop the spread. We still don't know if cities in the long term are going to work, but the interconnectedness that made Londoners subject to the cholera plague also made it possible for there to be changes that stopped the plague, and for further changes in urban life so that the city did not collapse upon itself. The Ghost Map works just fine as a recounting of a victory over a hideous illness, but it also delivers surprising praise about cities and city-dwelling.
Johnson starts with a grim picture of waste removal from London in mid-nineteenth century. Cesspools which could overflow into the water supply were just the sort of environment that the bacterium _Vibrio cholerae_ wanted, but no one knew that at the time. Only a tiny, visually and gustatorily imperceptible amount of bacterium can be a lethal dose, however, and the disease is horrific. Previously healthy victims are dead within hours, killed by the chemical imbalances resulting from explosive watery diarrhea. The 1854 outbreak was centered in Broad Street in Soho within London. Soho, like other overpopulated and under-piped parts of the city, smelled bad, and that, according to the thinking of the day, caused disease; this was the doctrine of the "miasmatists". The main medical opposition to the miasmatists came from Doctor John Snow, who was more famous as the man who administered the chloroform to Queen Victoria in her first anesthesia-assisted birth. Investigating the spread of illness was rather outside his field, but he was deeply curious about the subject. In addition to actuarial data, he used specific data from Henry Whitehead, a local minister who knew the neighborhood and its citizens well and had gone house to house collecting details about daily habits, incidence of cholera, and deaths. There was an enormous amount of work on the streets of Soho to collect the data, but Snow was able to see that people drawing water from one particular public pump were falling to the disease. That he stopped the cholera outbreak would have been enough, but he went on to make a map of where the deceased victims lived, and the deaths centered on the poisoned pump. As information display and epidemiological data, this was a revolution. Snow did not live long enough to see his findings accepted (they were attacked in medical journals), but his maps were there and continue to be shown as classics of data presentation. Eventually, London got a sewage system by 1865, and such problems were a thing of the past for the city, although cholera still stalks the world where waste and water mix.
Johnson explains that the crowding of people allowed the cholera outbreak, but it also allowed Snow and Whitehead to come together to form their conclusions, and it allowed them to draw on data from other researchers. That these were locals coming to answers is essential; outsiders from the Board of Public Health could have reached no such useful conclusions. Johnson has an enthusiasm for cities, and for the possibility of local information to be assessed and used, just as New York City has a 311 system for reporting city problems that are not 911 emergencies. This is an optimistic book; Johnson feels that the same local problem-solving effort that broke the Soho outbreak is even more accessible now that the data can be displayed by computer in maps comparable to Snow's. Cities thus have more potential for information gathering and interaction than ever before, plus (despite the back-to-the-land tradition of ecologists) cities make an enormous amount of environmental sense, because they limit the effects of people on the broader landscape. Cities will probably handle further epidemics, even eco-terrorism, by assessment of local knowledge, and this will be all to the good; the one point of pessimism is that no one can work out a vaccination against nuclear terrorism. Johnson has taken different scales of problems, from microscopic to urban and global, and used a classic story of information gathering and display to bring light to all the levels.
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