Oddly, I felt it needed more maps. ( )

Taut and engrossing, Steven Johnson's 'The Ghost Map' is a rollicking multidisciplinary romp through Victorian London's scientific, cultural and medical evolution. Johnson's focal point is a devastating--indeed, decimating--1854 cholera outbreak in Soho, which becomes a crucible of the nascent field of epidemiology and highlights the stark changes in science throughout the mid-19th century.

Johnson paints a picture of early Victorian London as a place of quack doctors, scientific misunderstanding and cultural prejudice. Indeed, outbreaks of cholera and other infectious diseases were seen as wafting in on waves of the city's stench--miasmas--and affecting mostly those of 'lesser quality', the vast masses of urban poor living in crowded squalor cheek-by-jowl with open sewers.

By contrast, our hero, sleuth-doctor-researcher John Snow, is turning the medical community on its ear by suggesting that cholera might be, somehow, 'in the water.' His detective work is aided by a surprising sidekick, local clergyman Henry Whitehead. It is, as you might imagine, an uphill battle to topple what is presumed as medical fact: things that smell bad make you sick.

Johnson's attention rarely seems to wander, and the momentum of the story is nearly unrelenting. He takes crisp, intriguing side trips into related subjects, but consistently keeps his eye on the ball. As a result, the book is an absolute page-turner. He even manages to describe the deplorable sanitary conditions of 19th century London without sounding like he's trying for shock value--a real skill.

Highly recommended. ( )

Where do you find the conjunction of epidemiology, mathematics, anthropology, and Victorian history? You do in this enlightening book, The Ghost Map, subtitled "The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. The subtitle is not an overstatement for this is one of the best books about the history of science that I have read. Steven Johnson provides the details of an episode in the improvement of scientific understanding that makes you wonder that such improvement ever occurs. Just as important as the scientific story are the connections the author makes between it and the history of the growth of cities with the impact of disease and its control on the possibilities for further growth. The background of certain key contributors, both medical and political, along with such contextual information as the history and literature of the times, 1850's London, adds to the wealth of information that makes the story of this Cholera epidemic worth reading. I enjoyed each chapter as I learned about an important chapter in the history of science. ( )

Reviewed by Mr. Kome ( )

An extremely well written, accessible account of the birth of the domain of public health. Johnson looks at every level of the cholera epidemic, from the microbial level to the politics of miasma theory. This depth makes in much easier to understand the importance of the containment of the Broad St. outbreak from a history of public health standpoint than if the book was presented without the microbial or political motivators behind the containment. Finally, "Ghost Map" is a concise read that avoids getting caught up in the minutiae of the epidemic which also adds to its accessibility.

The one major strike against "Ghost Map" is that its conclusion and especially its epilogue lacks the focus that makes the body of the book so successful. Johnson strays into the growth of super-cities and the impact of terrorism as a limiting factor of urban development, neither of which has anything to do with cholera or public health (except for a few words on bio-terrorism). Discussions of urban development are crucial when discussing public health, but Johnson fails to make this connection explicit. Clearly, Johnson was moved by the fear that gripped New York City after September 11th and felt a connection with the fear that gripped London during the Broad St. cholera outbreak. Regardless, this is still an excellent book whose ending begins to drift away from its thesis. Well worth reading. ( )

The basic narrative is about the investigation of the cholera epidemic in London that began to bring about the end of the miasma theory of infectious diseases.There reached a point in the book where it felt like the story had been told but author was just trying to increase the overall page count for the book.The epilogue is a drawn-out pontification of the author's assertion of the superiority of the urban lifestyle over the rural lifestyle and seems to be a completely unnecessary addition to the book. ( )

“The probability of an outburst or increase during [calm, mild] weather, I believed to be heightened on holidays, Saturdays, Sundays, and any other occasions where opportunities were afforded the lower classes for dissipation and debauchery” – unattributed quote by ‘expert’ regarding how cholera disproportionally attacks the poor and other social underclasses, in Victorian London.

As strange as this seems to modern eyes, this statement was backed up by scientific evidence, or at least what passed for such in England of the mid-19th century. During this time, the predominant theory for the spread of contagion and sickness was miasma (Greek for “pollution”), that is bad smells and foul air were the causes of disease.

The Ghost Map: the Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World, by Steven Johnson (Riverhead Books) is the story of Dr. John Snow and Rev. Henry Whitehead’s discovery of the water-born transmission of cholera, a disease which struck with terrifying regularity in London and other large cities. The popular folklore is that Dr. Snow plotted cases of cholera deaths on a map, and deduced that the outbreak’s source was a particular well in a poor section of London, and removed the handle to the pump, thereby halting the epidemic, and was hailed as a hero.

The true story is not nearly so neatly packaged. Dr. Snow noticed, in earlier epidemics, a pattern of isolated groups either contracting cholera in isolation, or seeing groups that were spared contagion in the middle of a raging epidemic. Using his skills and experience, he correctly deduced that water somehow carried the source of the disease (although he had no idea about germ theory), and managed to track the common source to the water well located on Broad Street, in the area now known as Soho. Although he was unable to find anything in the water that could be the source of the disease (in fact, other wells had cloudy or smelly water, but no pattern of contagion). Over a period of months, however, he was unable to convince the health boards and community groups of his findings, because it was commonly known that bad smells were the source of disease, and indeed this had been known for centuries. This belief was continually reinforced because the most stricken areas, such as Broad Street, also happened to be the dirtiest and most fetid location in London. The scientists of the day could confirm their views by taking an (admittedly short) stroll through the impacted areas.

London grew from a city of a few hundred thousand to over 2 million in a matter of decades. Before the growth, most human waste was collected and carried to the surrounding farmland for fertilizer. However, with the rapid grow and expansion of the city limits, the feasibility and cost to remove ‘night soil’ became too expensive for the poor, and so the waste collected in the cesspools under the houses and in open pits in the alleys and yards. What few sewage systems existed dumped the untreated water directly into the Thames. The invention of the water closet increased the problem, since the additional water used for flushing ended up in the same overflowing pits. London was drowning in human waste, and it was commonly believed that the city would eventually perish under its mountain of refuse. And, common ‘scientific’ belief was that since the worst situation, and the worst smells, existed in the poorest neighborhoods, as did the greatest incidences of disease, crime, and death, the poor somehow brought it upon themselves, hence the quotation at the beginning of this article.

Dr. Snow eventually persuaded the local council to remove the pump handle, but by this time, new cases of cholera (and the original index source of the outbreak) had moved on. The councils were not, however, persuaded of the validity of their belief in miasma. In fact, Dr. Snow’s views were openly mocked on the pages of The Lancet and the newspapers of the day. How did they explain that in some cases, some members of a family died while other survived, while supposedly breathing the same foul air? Or that one household might entirely succumb while their immediate neighbors, who shared a yard, might all survive? The Victorians concluded, based on their understanding of the evidence, was that a person’s inherent constitution and moral character could be protective. Reverend Whitehead, who served as the local vicar and knew nearly all of the people of the Broad Street area on a first-name basis, initially scoffed at Dr. Snow’s hypothesis, as well, but became intrigued and finally assisted Dr. Snow’s data collection efforts when he realized that the ‘constitution and moral character’ of the individuals succumbing to cholera did not necessarily jive with the mortality cases. He also helped Dr. Snow track down and tabulated cases of cholera among ‘the better sort’ of people who no longer lived in the Broad Street area but may have partaken of the well’s water during a visit. He was also impressed that the entire population of a workhouse (the Victorians’ favorite scapegoat) survived the outbreak, as did all of the workers at a particular brewery, who were paid in product and never drank water.

In the end, it was not an epiphany that led Dr. Snow to his breakthrough, but years of plodding, shoe leather, tedious tabulation of victims, and his now-famous map, that convinced the skeptics of his claim. It was nearly 10 years after the outbreak before Dr. Snow’s discovery was finally accepted by mainstream scientists and politicians, and it was shortly after that that London finally embarked on the ambitious plan to install both sewer collection systems and to supply filtered water to the population of London. The last cholera outbreak was in 1866, shortly before the completion of the system. London’s example served as a model for the other great cities of the world.

Dr. Snow and Rev. Whitehead’s true legacies are not that they stopped cholera epidemics, but that they introduced a multidisciplinary approach in thinking about medical and scientific problems, and moderized the methods of scientific inquiry. ( )

Excellent. This is my second Steven Johnson book. Now I will have to read all of his stuff. This is much more than pop-science history. Strong sociology of science elements.

Johnson does a great job of weaving the 1854 Cholera crisis into a larger tale about the positive and potentially dreadful issues that exist in our rapidly urbanized “city-planet” a century and a half after the fact. Most of the book is indeed dedicated to the London epidemic and is mainly structured from the perspective of John Snow’s emergence as a dedicated, fastidious medical professional that must develop his water-born disease theory in the face of long-held embrace of the miasma theory (fetid air as the communication device of the disease) among other more absurd theories. Ultimately the story has two heroes, Snow and the Reverend Henry Whitehead who originally denounced Snow’s idea and ridiculed the removal of the pump handle. But all of this is likely found within the book description above, so there’s no need for me to subject this to my dubious contortions.

I’ll simply say that this is not a linear narrative as Johnson is all over the place chronologically and thematically, despite the day-to-day account/chapter heads that only somewhat structures the story. It works well, in my opinion, and warrants my bestowment of the title “page-turner” to his effort. He necessarily delves into the more scientific aspects – rendering the information in a clear way for us laypeeps. Of course he’s also a layperson so I’d be curious to read the opinion of a real scientist or medical professional. Occasionally I did have this odd sensation that he was writing and repeating /reiterating statements in such a simplistic, almost preachy prose as if directed towards a slow eleven year old. And this wasn’t even so much with the scientific explanations but with statements dealing with Victorian era morality. I also – having read one of his previous books, and seeing his lecture – found myself thinking “aha!” as I was about mid-way through the concluding chapter. Here he suddenly confronts us with a dissertation about how communication devices and potentialities of the 21st century enables new and uncharted forms of urban interrelations – essentially his main agenda as evidenced by his other writings. I was initially bothered as I really just wanted the London story, but it all comes together – mostly in the Epilogue – as a resolved and interesting series of correlations and statements about scientific inquiry, issues relating to dense urban settlement and how the idea of an informational/projective “map” has transformed (the proof of which I see immediately to the right where, as I type, some digital add for something called the ATT "LOOPT" maps a conversation between two women in New York who realize they had purchased the same "cute dress" from that same "cute boutique." Tragedy is averted as the instantaneous LOOPT conversation allows one to return her dress immediately, thus avoiding an attire faux pas later that evening. Thank goodness...). ( )

Rarely do I read nonfiction, but this one was great! It was ecommended to me by a friend when I told him I loved novels on the theme of epidemics and deadly diseases.

In 1854 a neighborhood in London suffered an astonishing outbreak of cholera which descimated the population... but only of one area. The book focuses on the investigations of John Snow and Henry Whitehead. Snow, the doctor who discovered how cholera was transmitted, and Whitehead, a clergyman who provided key pieces of the puzzle and became a champion for Dr. Snow.

Far from stoppin at the disease, the book goes into the concepts and technologies that allowed Snow to solve the problem, and how these ideas have developed up to the present day, and how they are likely to develop in the future. The lengthy epilogue discusses the positives and negatives of city dwelling today, and how an epidemic disease today would be spread and how it would be conquered. ( )

An engaging account of Dr. John Snow and the medical detective work that kept London’s plumbing from killing again. A book you can't put down and a story you won't forget. ( )

Interesting true story of the London cholera epidemic, and how public health officioal. Well written, it sucks you in until the very end. Great if you like science history. ( )

I’ve been reading Steven Johnson’s book The Ghost Map, about the 1854 cholera epidemic in Soho, London, that proved to be the breakthrough in linking cholera to infected drinking water, partly though John Snow’s famous map. The book - which is wonderfully readable - is interesting for several reasons; as a social history of Victorian England; second, in tracing the battle between competing scientific and medical explanations of cholera; and third, for some reflections on the vulnerability of the modern city.

Full review at: http://thenextwavefutures.wordpress.c...

I picked this up when we went to hear Steven Johnson talk about his newest book, but the bookstore had a number of his previous books on display and we looked at these as we waited for his presentation to begin. This one caught my eye because it is about London and because it was the story of an historic use of scientific analysis to study a problem, identify the cause of the problem, and then identify a solution. Having worked in a number of my professional positions as an analyst, this was very appealing.

Steven Johnson is herein presenting the story of a relatively shortlived and relatively minor (to those not caught up in it) outbreak of cholera in London in the summer of 1854. In the process, he also introduces two individuals who contribute to the solving of the mystery of what causes cholera as a result of their efforts studying this particular outbreak in individual efforts that would eventually converge and even overlap. In the process, Steven Johnson unveils a great deal about London in the era of Charles Dickens and the heyday of Queen Victoria. John Snow was already a ground-breaking contributor to the advancement of medicine by reason of his work as an anesthesiologist. His mastery of the use of ether and chloroform was so widely recognized that he was called in to perform this role for the Queen herself on the occasion of the birth of her eighth child in 1853. He remained interested, however, in the wider range of progress in medicine and particularly its unanswered questions.

The recurrent outbreaks of cholera in London and other metropolitan centers of England and Europe had interested Snow for some years before the subject outbreak in London. Steven Johnson's presentation of Snow's investigation of this latest outbreak is a fascinating study of modern research methodology applied to a real world problem. Snow gathers his data, analyzes it in various ways, including by graphically tracing the outbreak on a street map of London, seeking to identify the geographic origins and thus come closer to identifying the starting point of the epidemic. The result is a revelatory breakthrough though one not universally recognized and acclaimed for some years to come..

Ultimately, John Snow's efforts win the support and even partnership of the curate for the area of the cholera outbreak, Henry Whitehead, although he is at first skeptical of Snow's claims. This puts him in company at first with the medical, political, and government establishment who generally agree that cholera is spread through the atmosphere by means of miasma or bad air often accompanied by foul odors. Ultimately, Whitehead's own researchs, reflecting the personal observations made during his many hours touring the area of the outbreak which constitutes a part of his parish leads him to support John Snow's contention that cholera is actually carried and spread by water - especially fouled drinking water. To modern readers this will come as no suprise and the real interest in the tale is the telling of how they came to this conclusion and then how they ulitimately convinced others that John Snow was correct.

Steven Johnson's writing style is pleasant and easy to read. His pacing in the telling of the story is appropriately also relaxed, never hurrying the reader on or leaving the story to drag along. He presents an interesting story in an interesting and readable fashion - it is hard to praise an author more than to say that and I highly recommend this book as a result. And if you happened to actually be interested in the subject matter as well, as was I, than you will doubtlessly be doubly awarded in the reading of it. ( )

http://amiralace.blogspot.com/2007/09... ( )

An excellent account of the famous London cholera epidemic, written in the vein of The Great Mortality. The author also has some persuasive points about global urbanization at the end. ( )

The Ghost Map is an extremely detailed and compelling account of a cholera outbreak in a neighborhood of London in 1854. Its detail is owed to the fact that a man living in the neighborhood, a scientist named John Snow, took it upon himself to survey the neighborhood house by house during the outbreak in an attempt to prove a theory he had hatched that cholera was a water-borne contagion. Thus, thanks to his records, we know that the well water for the neighborhood was probably contaminated on August 28th, 1854, and we know almost to a man who visited the neighborhood pump for water in the week the followed, since they almost all died. We also know who didn’t visit the pump that week, one of whom was an ornithologist named Gould, who was normally a regular pump-drinker but forewent the pleasure that week because he thought the water smelled a little off. It didn’t, but I couldn’t help, after reading this, glancing up at my beloved collection of Gould’s illustrations of tropical birds and feeling a little faint, some 150 years after the fact, at his near brush with certain death.

Thanks to Snow’s careful record keeping, plus a general British tendency to bureaucratize everything—and bureaucracy naturally means paperwork—Steven Johnson was able to rebuild the neighborhood around the outbreak almost to a house, along with careful, compassionate descriptions of everyone who lived there, what they did, how they survived (if they survived). And despite the scatological nature of the subject (cholera, I’m sorry to say, is transmitted fecal-oral) he creates for the reader a vivid image of Victorian London with the detail and beauty of a daguerreotype. full review

http://www.lonelymountain.net/books/o... ( )

I think about this book a lot - there are so many interesting technologies that suddenly came together to make it story. As a GIS person (Maps and Computers), the map itself is amazing - it was one of the first times a map was used for analysis and to prove a theory. The history of cholera was interesting, from an unknown "Vapor" to a theory of bacteria and water contamination then on to actual proof. Very good read about a turning point in the worlds history. ( )

Facinating history of how cholera spread throughout the Soho area of London in the 1850's. A heavy and not thrilling topic made readable by Johnson's "detective story" like tale. ( )

Very good, easy to read, and very interesting.

If your interested in how disease spreads then you will dig this. It was interesting, well written, but the subject matter was pretty gross. ( )

The Ghost Map is, first and foremost, a history of the 1854 Cholera outbreak on London. If your college or high school biology class had a section on epidimiology, or you ever had a class that covered the development of cities and modern sanitation systems you've probably heard a little about it already.

In this detailed re-telling of that outbreak, and the work of Dr. John Snow and the vicar Henry Whitehead in establishing the source and means of propagation of the epidemic. The details of a cholera are necessarily rather gruesome. Author Steven Johnson relieves the horribleness of the story by regularly stepping away from the cholera to investigate the background of cities, and London in particular, Young and Whitehead, the then-current theory of disease (the miasmatists), and peppers the account with his own wry sense of humor. For example, when discussing a water filtration plant and the company's assertion that it could not be at fault for a cholera outbreak because of its state-of-the-art system, Johnson says "...reports had surfaced of some customers discovering live eels in their drinking water, which suggested that the filters were perhaps not working optimally." As a result what might be a rather punishing history to read is actually quite interesting and entertaining.

However, beyond Victorian London and the fight against Cholera, The Ghost Map is also, as the sub title says, a description of how modern cities can be seen as a direct result of germ-theory, sanitation, and public health. The last chapter and half are considerations of the future challenges that huge cities do and may face. If they aren't as entertaining as the rest of the book, and if Johnson glosses over many topics to make his point, it isn't worth quibbling about. He makes some points worth considering and uses the lessons of the past to cast a light on the challenges of the future.

The Ghost Map is a very easy and fairly quick read for a non-fiction work. If you have any interest in the development of cities, in epidemiology, or Victorian London, I highly recommend you read it. ( )

The Ghost Map by Seven Johnson tells a story many Americans know from their high school geography books. During the first half of the nineteenth century the city of London was subjected to a series of deadly Cholera outbreaks. No one knew for certain how Cholera was spread, though people at the time believed in the miasma theory, which stated that cholera was a result of breathing bad air and having a weak constitution. Dr. John Snow believed the disease was spread by contact with human waste through contaminated drinking water. To prove his case, he plotted out the Cholera deaths during The Broad Street outbreak. The resulting map clearly showed that those using the Broad Street water pump were dying from Cholera. The pump was shut down, the outbreak ended, and it became clear to everyone that Cholera was spread by contact with human waste, not by bad air.

I doubt that many people will be surprised to learn that their geography books have the story only partially correct. Dr. Snow did investigate the deaths in the neighborhood of the Broad Street pump, he did establish that Cholera was spread by contact with the pump's water, and eventually this did lead to the end of the miasma theory of contamination. But his famous map was not the cause of it all; rather it was the result, a product of a long term study produced after the outbreak had ended.

There is much more to Steven Johnson's book The Ghost Map. In fact, the map itself plays only a very small part in Mr. Johnson's story. Like many popular histories, The Ghost Map takes a well known product and examines it from all angles, covers its long period of development, taking a look at a wide range of history along the way. The reader learns much about the development of cities, human evolution and adaptations to urban living, how the Broad Street neighborhood came to be and what it was like to live there in the early 19th century as well as an interesting history of epidemiology and urban plumbing.

Much of the book describes 19th century plumbing, both into and out of the many homes in London. This is not reading suitable for the squeamish, but it certainly makes one appreciate just how far civilization has come. There were indoor flush toilets, for example, but they simply flushed waste into the basement or onto the streets in front of people's homes. Don't have a toilet or a drain in your sink, just throw your waste out the front door. No matter that the local water pump is right there, separated from a nearby cesspool by just a crumbling brick wall.

Enter Dr. John Snow, who really should be a household name. Personal physician to the queen and a pioneer in the use of anesthesia, he followed the spread of Cholera has a sideline. He knew there was little proof to support the miasma theory of contagion but he was almost alone in this belief. He personally went from door to door throughout the Broad Street neighborhood, taking down lengthy interviews with everyone, both victim and survivor, to trace just who drank from the pump and who didn't and whether or not they later became sick with Cholera. There is some suspense in Steve Johnson's telling, so I'll go no further here, expect to say that the results of Dr. Snow's work, led not only to the end of Cholera outbreaks but to the modern systems of urban plumbing we now enjoy. Say what you will about the water you're drinking, it does not come from where it ends up anymore. That was not true in Dr. Snow's day.

Towards the end of The Ghost Map the story does begin to run out of steam a bit. Mr. Johnson attempts to bring the issues into the present in his concluding chapters, but this material is not as strong as the earlier historical sections. In spite of this, I found The Ghost Map to be fascinating reading and am giving it four out of five stars ( )

The Ghost Map tells the story of one cholera outbreak in London and it manages to tell the story in amazing detail. Additionally, it tells the story a battle over the explanation of how disease is spread between contagionism and miasma and provides evidence of how understanding biology and an urban environment can provide insight into disease and history. ( )