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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From Steven Johnson, the dynamic thinker routinely compared to James Gleick, Dava Sobel, and Malcolm Gladwell, The Ghost Map is a riveting page turner about a real life historical hero, Dr John Snow 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 and interconnectedness of the spread of disease, contagion theory, 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. New Read The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World [ By ] Steven Johnson [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr WARNING Do not read this review if you are squeamish Or eating.This book is about cholera, and as a result, the author uses an impressive number of words for shit including excrement, ordure, human waste, and the Victorian euphemism night soil. And shit, of course Johnson explains that a key question in the...By turns thought provoking and irritating, The Ghost Map meanders from its central story how an unorthodox physician found the source of a cholera epidemic that swept through London in 1854 into a host of other issues Expecting astraightforward account of the unraveling of this medical mystery, I set this book aside twice in frustration, bored with the author s tendency to stretch out the narrative, and particularly his repeated examination of the hold the miasma paradigm had upon By turns thought provoking and irritating, The Ghost Map meanders from its central story how an unorthodox physician found the source of a cholera epidemic that swept through London in 1854 into a host of other issues Expecting astraightforward account of the unraveling of this medical mystery, I set this book aside twice in frustration, bored with the author s tendency to stretch out the narrative, and particularly his repeated examination of the hold the miasma paradigm had upon medical minds in the mid nineteenth century He can t seem to get over the fact that all manner of educated and otherwise reasonable people believed that disease was caused by noxious smells His lengthy discussion of the bureau...I read The Ghost Map The Story of London s Most Terrifying Epidemic and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World because I wanted to learnabout a story I thought I knew The story I learned goes like this during a terrible cholera outbreak in Victorian London, Dr John Snow made a revolutionary map of the mortality, was like, Holy crap The deaths all radiate out from this one pump and removed the pump handle, thus halting the epidemic dead in its tracks Turns out, there I read The Ghost Map The Story of London s Most Terrifying Epidemic and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World because I ...Cholera is a nasty little bug Once ingested, it forms colonies on the intestinal wall, begins to reproduce with ferocious speed, and proceeds to trick the cells into excreting water rather than absorb it It doesn t really matter of the host dies soon, because millions of new little cholera bacteria rush out of the host with the excreta waiting for the next person to ingest some excrement That is the key The only was to get cholera is by ingesting the excrement of another person so infected Cholera is a nasty little bug Once ingested, it forms colonies on the intestinal wall, begins to reproduce with ferocious speed, and proceeds to trick the cells into excreting water rather than absorb it It doesn t really matter of...3.5 Had seen the PBS special on Snow and his discovery during the cholera epidemic a few months back and this addeddetail to that show Interesting theories abounded, the miasma theory which was a theory almost all favored How they did so much with so little Took hard work without all our modern scientific equipment Snow dedicated his life to the sciences, what he accomplished was nothing short of astonishing Loved all the extraneous information, how tea helped with the lessening of ce 3.5 Had seen the PBS special on Snow and his discovery during the cholera epidemic a few months back and this addeddetail to that show Interesting theories abounded, the miasma theory which was a theory almost all favored How they did so much with so little Took hard work witho...who knew i d find a nonfiction account of the epidemiological history of cholerainteresting than most YA fantasy this book was disgusting it was also SO FUN well, the first hundred or so pages were the funnest ever five star level for real then the next one hundred were likeeh and the last fifty were uhhh i think i m just going to skip this i m here for plagues and infectious disease not self indulg...I enjoyed most of the book, but I hated the concluding chapter I would have preferred it if he had stuck to his subject rather than stringing together a series of personal opinions The discussion of the relative risks of a nuclear holocaust versus bio terrorism via a genetically engineered virus seemed force...Except for the feeling of nausea that accompanies the reading at times, this is a very interesting book about the cholera epidemic in 1854, before the existence of bacteriology parasitology It is also the epic tale of John Snow who almost single handedly kept track of contamination pathways, fought against the miasma theory and the biased and unscientific approach of his peers, tried to locate and define the germ and still kept his hat on like a gentleman Amazing true story, especially if you Except for the feeling of nausea that accompanies the reading at times, this is a very interesting book about the cholera epidemic in 1854, before the existence of bacteriology parasitology It is also the epic tale of John Snow who almost single handedly kept track of contamination pathways, fought against the miasma theory and the biased and unscientific approach of his peers, tried to locate and define the germ and still kept his hat on like a gentleman Amazing true story, espe...view spoiler Bettie s Books hide spoilerWhen I was complaining about how bad Johnson s The Invention of Air was I hadn t realised that I had read and enjoyed his Mind Wide Open Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life Then David and Eric told me to try this one and they are right, this is a far better book The things that annoyed me in The Invention of Air the asides on paradigms and Hegalian dialectics for instance are both in part rehearsed here, but in a way that assumes either that the reader has heard of these ideas When I was complaining about how bad Johnson s The Invention of Air was I hadn t realised that I had read and...

The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
  • English
  • 01 December 2017
  • Hardcover
  • 299 pages
  • 1594489254
  • Steven Johnson
  • The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World