The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World

It's the summer of 1854, and London is just emerging as one of the first modern cities in the world. But lacking the infrastructure-garbage removal, clean water, sewers-necessary to support its rapidly expanding population, the city has become the perfect breeding ground for a terrifying disease no one knows how to cure. As the cholera outbreak takes hold, a physician and a local curate are spurred to action-and ultimately solve the most pressing medical riddle of their time.

In a triumph of multidisciplinary thinking, Johnson illuminates the intertwined histories of the spread of disease, the rise of cities, and the nature of scientific inquiry, offering both a riveting history and a powerful explanation of how it has shaped the world we live in.

Spotlight Reviews
Absolutely riveting (2008-12-16)
Customer Review : 5
Once I started it, I couldn't put it down. This book immediately grabs you and dumps you into the wretchedness and filth that is London in 1854. Before this book, I couldn't have told you what cholera was or how it is prevented/cured, but now I can. My only complaint is that the photo/graphic of the actual ghost map is not featured very prominently. It would have been wonderful to have more and larger photos of the actual map to peruse. It's almost difficult to understand if the map shown is the actual ghost map. There's also a discussion about what the map orginally looked like and then the 2nd edition. Why couldn't they have put both of them in?

Dr John Snow and the transmission of cholera (2008-11-30)
Customer Review : 5
Many years ago, I read the monograph of Dr John Snow ("On the mode of communication of cholera") originally published in 1854 after the famous Broad Street outbreak of cholera which is described in the book of Steven Johnson, "The ghost map".
But at that time, I was unable to fully understand the historical background in which Dr Snow lived and the details of how he made his fundamental discovery of the transmission of cholera by water. I did'nt even know Henry Whitehead and how important he was in that history.
The book "The ghost map" of Steven Johnson, is really amazing because it takes us deep into the "Victorian World" of Dr Snow, making his achievement even greater.
The medical paradigm of contagious diseases at Dr Snow's time was the miasma theory which said that those diseases were transmitted by air.
But based on his work as doctor and anesthesiologist (by the way, he is the father of anesthesiology) he doubted the miasma theory for two evidences he was fully aware :
1. the symptoms of cholera are all related to the gastrointestinal tract, the lungs are not affected at all (and they used to performed autopsies); so, how could a disease be transmitted by air if the lung are spared ? the transmission should be in the food or water not in the air;
2. if the transmission was by air contaminated with organic compounds as postulated by the miasma theory, all sorts of cleaning workers of London should be more affected by cholera than other people, which was not the case; and according to Dr Snow's own observations of the effects of ether and chloroform on patients during his numerous anesthesias, he knew that the more concentrated a gas, the more intense would be its effects (the so-called dose-effect relationship).
So, Dr Snow postulated that the transmission could be by water and he moved on to test that hipothesis. Before the Broad Street outbreak of cholera he had tested it in a previous epidemic of cholera in London (in 1848-1849) by comparing the statistics of death with the supply of clean or poluted water from the Thames river. And this statistical correlation proved correct.
So, when the Broad Street outbreak started, Dr Snow was aware that the likely source of contamination was the water of the pump. But it would be very difficult to prove it and persuade people.



Scientific research at its best (2008-11-15)
Customer Review : 4
This is wonderful account of scientific research on 19th century conducted not with high tech instruments but with an open and inquisitive mind and ground work. It eventually traces the cause of cholera to water when all the medics were sure at that time that diseases like this were transmitted by air in the form of foul smells. What is really amazing is that the works of Dr. Snow and Reverend Whitehead points to water as the source but they did not have any means to identify or propose what was wrong in the water. The cholera bacteria was identified several decades later. But still by careful observations, statistics, lots of interviews and applied logic they identified the contaminated water form a particular well was the cause.

I recommend this book to whoever is interested in following step by a step a very scientific reasoning.

Definitely Worth The Read (2008-11-09)
Customer Review : 4
The book kept me glued for 180 pages straight. Very compelling read for the genre. There are some negatives though. The book often dwells far too long on topics not all that relevant or necessary to the story. You get the filling that the author added a lot of filler to make the book longer. This feeling is stressed by the fact that the author repeats himself A LOT. He will literally say the same thing reworded three times in a row and repeat it once more in the next paragraph. Still, I loved the book and I felt an amazing sense of respect and pride while reading through plight of the two main protagonists. The writing isn't top shelf material but it works.

Like fiction (2008-10-02)
Customer Review : 5
Steven Johnson gets draw a clasical Snow's Story like a fiction but anchored to the reality throught tree "dramatic lines":

1. The comming of a epidemiology like a new science.

2. The borning of geographic inference. How we can infer what happen in the micro world trough the macro world.

3. A case of honestity betwen ancient believes performer and a science man.

Those tree treadsare weaved by the story with presence of tautness moments and characters take the good side or de bad side in diferent moments.

The story is simple but well workred. A terrific dreadful sillnes apears in London, a bunch of corpses flood the streets. Nothing knows that to do. Church performer says that the gulty is the miasma. Miasma is a very strange conccept that does not means although nothing, buy can be seen like a phantom that travels by air taking amay litle pieces of sickness. The miasma can be produced by a god desicion. Who say that is Henry Whithead whose name would look have been taked from a fiction.

An anestesiologist apears in scene. He beginings to arrange the geografic information ponting each one of the dies, one point in the died person home. This hero is John Snow whose name looks like from fiction too.

Both persons debate about. But the stronger is the religious man. Trhough the worked maps, Snow get convince to Whitehead. Whitehead convince easely to goverment. And goverment close the water bombs getting in this way the victory over siknes the other character named cholera.

Is a good book but the map that present is just a part of the complet work. This book is good for teacheing, for enterteinement and for general culture too.