Full name: The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World

Author: Steven Johnson Year: 2006 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: History, Science, Non Fiction Purchase/reserch links: Goodreads Amazon LibraryThing ISBNs: 9781594489259 9781594482694 1594489254 1594482691

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. Similar books: The Code Book by Simon Singh A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin Cod by Mark Kurlansky Salt by Mark Kurlansky The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough Hackers by Steven Levy The Cracking Code Book by Simon Singh Changes in the Land by William Cronon Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin Magicians of the Gods by Graham Hancock The Great Mortality by John Kelly The Demon Under the Microscope by Thomas Hager Radical by Kate Pickert Asimov's Chronology of the World by Isaac Asimov The Century of the Surgeon by Jurgen Thorwald Where Wizards Stay Up Late by Katie Hafner Atomic Awakening by James Mahaffey The Year 1000 by Robert Lacey Plagues and Peoples by William H. McNeill