Editorial Review:

A National Bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book, and an Entertainment Weekly Best Book of the Year

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.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Dr John Snow and the transmission of cholera:

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... more info

Scientific research at its best:

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... more info

Definitely Worth The Read:

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... more info

Like fiction:

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... more info

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