Books : 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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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 941
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Riverhead Trade
Manufacturer: Riverhead Trade
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: October 02, 2007
Publishing house: Riverhead Trade
Sale Popularity Level: 273983
Studio: Riverhead Trade
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Product Description:
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and commerce, teeming with people from all over the world, continually pushing the limits of infrastructure that's outdated as soon as it's updated.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.
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Rated by buyers 
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The Ghost Map describes a series of events more than a centory and a half ago, but the warnings are still timely. Crowding vast numbers or people together without proper sanitation and with primitive understanding of medicine is a deadly cocktail, and cholera the villain of the book is still frequent killer in the underdeveloped world. WE must all stay alert to te potential ravages of lethal diseases. The book is a sharp warning against complacency and at the same time a captivating good read.
Rated by buyers -
A fascinating read, in fact, the story line that weaves the two main characters together, Snow and Whitehead, has an almost cinematic sense of drama especially set against the Dickensian squalour of mid nineteenth century London.
Dan Mandish
Rated by buyers -
This book should make you appreciate how far public health and sanitation have come in the past 150 years. Did you know, most of modern society's gains in life expectancy precede major medical breakthroughs like antibiotics? You can thank improvements in water, sanitation and housing. This book highlights the inviolable fact that preventing someone else's poop from entering your mouth is a good thing. Thank God and John Snow for water treatment plants.
Rated by buyers -
Steven Johnson's Ghost Map is the fascinating story of the beginning of modern public health. It highlights the desperate search for the cause of a London cholera epidemic in the 1850's. The book has the pace and readability of a medical thriller combined with strong science/invetigational story telling. While the science end of the story shines, the reader still feels the human suffering of this tragic event. I liked the book so much I bought multiple copies to give to other teachers.
Rated by buyers -
Discovered Mr. Johnson's book via a column by George Will in the Washington Post online a few weeks ago. I've read many books on the plague and primitive medicine. Mr. Johnson's book was more a detective novel with the source of the cholera as the culprit.
Overall, the book is well written and quite amusing (especially when he holds-forth on the prevailing notion of a "miasma" source----if it "stinks, it kills"). But herein lies the rub; Mr. Johnson repeatedly presents the "theory of evolution" as fact. He extols the scientific process employed by Dr. Snow (whom he credits with discovering the source of cholera), while presenting the "theory" matter-of-factly. I'm no advocate of "intelligent design" (but I don't discount it), and the purpose of the book was not to "prove" evolution---however I found it ironic for the author to applaud the scientific basis of Dr. Snow's discovery while passing off a "theory" in several points as fact. This however is a literary nit---and I've recommended this book to friends who enjoy the genre, and marked-up my copy for future reference.
Recommended.
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