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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 - Steven Johnson
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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3.56 80
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... show more
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.
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Format: paperback
ISBN: 9781594482694 (1594482691)
ASIN: 1594482691
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Pages no: 320
Edition language: English
Bookstores:
Community Reviews
Sheila's Reads
Sheila's Reads rated it
4.0 THE GHOST MAP by Stephen Johnson
Follows a cholera epidemic in London through a doctor and a minister. Interesting but at times I had to re-read parts to understand what he was explaining. I liked the research of the doctor and the minister to track down where the cholera started and to keep it from spreading or recurring. Also enj...
Summer Reading Project, BookLikes Satellite
Summer Reading Project, BookLikes Satellite rated it
3.0 The Ghost Map, by Steven Johnson
Some of the things we know now about medicine—hygiene prevents illness, the four humours are bunk, mercury doesn't cure anything—seem so simple that medical history would be laughable if it hadn't been so deadly. It's easy to forget that it took us thousands of years to get to where we are. Steven J...
Bettie's Books
Bettie's Books rated it
3.0 The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson
bookshelves: history, sciences, plague-disease, nonfiction Read in August, 2008 Broadwick Street showing the John Snow memorial and pubSnow was a skeptic of the then-dominant miasma theory that stated held that diseases such as cholera or the Black Death were caused by pollution or a noxious for...
AmySea
AmySea rated it
I first learned about the 1854 Broad Street cholera epidemic when I listened to Documents that Changed the World podcasts: John Snow’s Cholera Map, 1854. This podcast was narrated by my friend and former colleague Andy. I believe that this podcast, as well as others in this series are available on...
Sophie
Sophie rated it
2.0 The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Deadliest Epidemic - and How it Changed the Way We Think About Disease, Cities, Science, and the Modern World
I had to read this for one of my classes at university. It's about the cholera outbreak in London when they figured out how cholera was spread, and the 2 guys who figured it out. It was very dryly written, but many aspects of the book were fascinating. The problem was that Johnson would go off topic...
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