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London, 1854. A horrific cholera epidemic. Ghost Map tells the story of the two men who find the source of the disease in a water pump on Broad Street. I was especially interested in the last third of the book, which looks at the episode from a modern-day point of view and places it in perspective.
Whitehead to Snow: You and I may not live to see the day, and my name may be forgotten when it comes; but the time will arrive when great outbreaks of cholera will be things of the past; and it is the ...more
Whitehead to Snow: You and I may not live to see the day, and my name may be forgotten when it comes; but the time will arrive when great outbreaks of cholera will be things of the past; and it is the ...more
Excellent. Made me simultaneously wish I had studied epidemiology and grateful I didn't. I can see how one could turn into Howard Hughes or a hypochondriac knowing too much on the topic. The majority of the book, on cholera, was focused on a problem now safely solved. The most fascinating aspect to me was the social change required to understand the disease by letting go of an inaccurate theory. The epilogue is worth the price of admission, but terrifying in how it applies the logic of the cho ...more
I'm not quite sure what all the fuss is about. Johnson's book is just a basic account of The Broad Street Pump story with a few shallow observations about urban life thrown into the mix. Anyone familiar with urban planning or public health will find the book flat at best and trite at worst. Plus, I truly wish I'd put the book down before the epilogue...
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A well-written book about an exciting moment in public health history. Even the author's extrapolations at the end, which initially I was not inspired by, have begun to change the way I look at our world and the power of mapping information.
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Feb 03, 2009
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