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| 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
Discount Category: Book
Selling Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $5.80
Potential Savings: $9.20 (61%)
New (57) Used (63) from $5.80
Customer Ratings:  104 comments
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1 Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (pounds): 0.6
Dimensions (inch): 8 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 1594482691
Dewey Decimal Number: 941
EAN: 9781594482694
Publication Date: October 2, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: New book (remainder mark/cover will have some shelf wear or small tear, bent corner or crease)
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| Customer Comments:
 Good book, but Kindle edition falls short September 30, 2008
0 out of 1 found this comment useful.
This was the first book I purchased for my Kindle, based on a friend's recommendation (who had read the print version). I found it a very enjoyable read, and it will be especially appealing to those interested in epidemiology, statistical graphics, and medical history.
However, if you care at all about annotations and such, I recommend you get it in print, not as a Kindle e-book. The book has very extensive notes at the end. I have to believe that these notes are numbered, and that there are superscripts in the main text of the printed version that reference these notes. However, in the Kindle edition, there are no links to these notes (even though such linking is possible), and there is no way to associate a given end note with a location in the text. I doubt that I would have interrupted my reading to follow many such notes, but I certainly would have done so a FEW times on topics of particular interest to me, and the inability to do so is a big loss.
The Kindle edition also includes the complete index, minus page numbers, and again with no links. This is not as big a problem, as one can use the search feature to find those locations.
What I wonder now is if this lack of linkage to end notes is the norm for Kindle books, or whether The Ghost Map is unusual in that respect. I suppose I will be pretty leery of reading nonfiction in this format in the future. This e-book cost me less than the printed form -- but I also received significantly less.
Another general note on the book is that it is disappointing that it does not display the second version of Snow's map (with voronoi boundaries) that is discussed in the conclusions. It would seem that this would be the "title map" so it is a curious omission.
Mapping a mystery September 29, 2008
Interesting retelling of the London Cholera outbreak in 1854, and how a physician and a pastor working on the edges of their disciplines solved the mystery and drew the "ghost map" of deaths which pointed to the source of the disease.
Bogs down when Johnson generalizes to the benefit of modern cities to the economy, the environment, and world health. Yeah, maybe, but I'm not sure Johnson proves the point or rather I'm fairly sure that Johnson over-reaches the evidence to try to prove his point.
Edward Tufte references this map extensively in his book Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative as a positive example of the power of proper visual display of information.
Good read September 19, 2008
My first introduction to John Snow and his work surrounding the cholera epidemic of the 1850's was during a microbiology class I took 5-6 years ago. John Snow is largely credited with the discovery of the causative nature of cholera and the resulting changes in civic sanitation and waste management. My appetite was only whetted then and wasn't fully satiated until after I read this intriguing account by Steven Johnson. More than just a telling of the events and resolution of the cholera epidemic of 1850's London, this book casts light on the political and social context of the times that made Mr. Snow's efforts even more noteworthy. Today we take for granted the germ theory of disease, but in Victorian London during the cholera outbreak of the 1850's the prevailing belief was that disease was caused by unhealthy air. Mr. Johnson's account of the obstacles faced by Mr. Snow in proving the true nature of the cholera's transmission is fascinating. This is a very good read for those interested in science and history.
Where has your drinking water been? September 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this comment useful.
The difficulty in reading about centuries past is adopting the mindset of those who lived then; how can we, with our 21st century knowledge, grasp a world in which people washed their babies' diapers next to the local drinking supply and thought nothing of it? Yet, Johnson weaves such a detailed picture of London life at the time that the commonplace miscomprehensions held by both the academics and uneducated are understandable. Johnson's greatest narrative gift is capturing the extent of the devastation and its commonplace nature in 19th century London, where people lived with the constant threat of epidemic.
The last fifth of the book is given over to Johnson's theorizing about the future of city planning, trying to tie it into the work of the pioneering researchers of the cholera outbreak. This non sequitur weakens the overall book, but only slightly. The mystery is real, the medical discoveries ingenious and Johnson's research and narrative compelling.
 a frightening lesson for us all September 5, 2008
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.
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