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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%)
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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:
 Where were the editors? June 29, 2008
4 out of 20 found this comment useful.
I just finished Steven Johnson's "Ghost Map". Not to be rude, but how does this stuff get published? For Pete's sake, the name of the book is ghost map, and there is not even a copy of the ghost map in the book.
The book itself lacks any kind of literary punch. Ostensibly about John Snow and cholera, in which there is probably an interesting story if told with focus, Johnson rambles pointlessly around campy urban planning doggerel.
I guess Johnson's reputation is so unassailable that editors don't bother to read what they publish. And that is what the book lacks, an editor.
The worst part is Johnson's attack on the foolish orthodoxy of the miasmaists, while he dutifully regurgitates the junior-high platitudes to Darwinist orthodoxy, when doing so adds absolutely nothing to the story, except to confirm his own Party loyalty.
 One of the most interesting books that I have read in a long time June 25, 2008
4 out of 5 found this comment useful.
In the summer of 1854, the Soho neighborhood of London was struck by a devastating outbreak of Cholera. Public officials and medical experts, who were stuck in the conventional wisdom that disease was caused by harmful "miasmas," looked in all the wrong places for the cause of the epidemic. But, there was one man who challenged the consensus of scientists and turned the entire understanding of diseases on its head - Dr. John Snow. This is the story of one man's bravery in using his brain, and letting the facts speak for themselves, even when those in power didn't want to hear it.
I must say that this is one of the most interesting books that I have read in a long time. The author does an excellent job of bringing that long-ago era back to life for the reader. I think that he did an excellent job of telling the story of Dr. Snow and the epidemic in an interesting way, avoiding the temptation to write the narrative in a dull, academic manner.
Plus, I was so intrigued by how history repeats itself over and over again. Could it happen again where a "consensus of scientists" can be used to trump meaningful, unbiased inquiry? Oh yeah!
This is a great book, one that I think will interest anyone interested in diseases and history, or indeed anyone who likes a good story. I loved this book, and no not hesitate to give it my highest recommendations!
Clever story marred by trendy theorizing June 17, 2008
2 out of 2 found this comment useful.
It's almost superfluous for me to review Ghost Map, a best-seller with its own webpage and Wikipedia article. So I will be brief. Steven Johnson is clever writer, a young man whose thought provoking story of the London cholera epidemic of 1854 contains a number of profitable ironies and digressions.
The weakness of the book--which no doubt many enthusiasts regard as a strength--is that Johnson is so consumed with communicating Big Ideas that the narrative peters out before the end of the volume, leaving behind a dusting of trendy theories that can make such works successful in the short run and quickly dated thereafter.
For example, Johnson considers one of the lessons of the ghost map story to be the demonstration that there is no moral component to disease. Yet today things "illegal, immoral and fattening" are more-than-ever suspect causes of premature death. Even Johnson's bete noir, the miasmic theory, has made something of a comeback with increased concern about air pollution. Ironically, Johnson's story, which the Chicago Tribune has called "the triumph of reason and evidence over superstition and theory," concludes with an attempt to enshrine its own superstitions and theories.
Medical / Health Related Sleuths of the Origin and Cause of a Cholera Epidemic in London in the 1800s. June 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this comment useful.
This book is an excellent and detailed look into the work of a few men who worked to try to solve the cause of a cholera outbreak in London.
It shows how the principal investigator used logic and reasoning and investigation skills to try to solve the mystery of what was causing the outbreak. It also goes into competing theories and theorists and the ultimate resolution of the cause of it.
The book is on balance an excellent one. I recommend it to anyone interested in medical and public health investigations, or in science, reasoning, and problem solving.
The story of cholera May 25, 2008
1 out of 2 found this comment useful.
The book is initially a smartly written account of John Snow (a multitalented doctor known for his experiments with ether) & Co. and their battle against the then-invisible cholera bug as well as the contemporary city administrators. Word of the book is "miasma". Great retelling of one of the great stories about the use of rudimentary epidemiology, and the debate surrounding disease transmission in general in 19th century cities. I am not sure what happens after page 200 - the author proceeds to get on the soapbox and starts unsuccessfully trying to connect cholera to nuclear weapons, hence the loss of a star. Still worth a read.
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