Steven Johnson. (2006). The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. Penguin Publishing Group.

Steven Johnson. 2006. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. Penguin Publishing Group.

Steven Johnson, The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. Penguin Publishing Group, 2006.

Steven Johnson. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. Penguin Publishing Group, 2006.

OverDrive Product Record

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/1523-1/{4A817685-9FFE-4A78-9983-487BBF1225D4}IMG100.JPG
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/1523-1/{4A817685-9FFE-4A78-9983-487BBF1225D4}IMG200.JPG
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/1523-1/{4A817685-9FFE-4A78-9983-487BBF1225D4}IMG150.JPG
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/1523-1/{4A817685-9FFE-4A78-9983-487BBF1225D4}IMG400.JPG
  • type: image/jpeg

formats

1. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781101158531
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
2. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ASIN
        • value: B003QTD4T6
   • name: Kindle Book
   • id: ebook-kindle
3. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781101158531
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • id: ebook-overdrive

otherFormatIdentifiers

1. • type: ISBN
   • value: 9781594489259

mediaType

eBook

primaryCreator

• role: Author
• name: Steven Johnson

isOwnedByCollections

True

title

The Ghost Map

dateAdded

2017-02-24T03:36:00Z

contentDetails

1. • href: https://link.overdrive.com?websiteID=141&titleID=204469
   • type: text/html
   • account:
     • name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
     • id: 1151

sortTitle

Ghost Map The Story of Londons Most Terrifying Epidemicand How It Changed Science Cities and the Modern World

crossRefId

204469

subtitle

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

id

4A817685-9FFE-4A78-9983-487BBF1225D4

starRating

4

OverDrive MetaData

interestLevel

UG

isPublicDomain

False

formats

1. • fileName: TheGhostMap_9781101158531_204469
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 12813267
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781101158531
   • rights:
     1. • type: Copying
        • value: 0
     2. • type: Printing
        • value: 0
     3. • type: Lending
        • value: 0
     4. • type: ReadAloud
        • value: 0
     5. • type: ExpirationRights
        • value: 0
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
   • onSaleDate: 10/19/2006
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/ghost-map-4a8176?.epub-sample.overdrive.com
2. • fileName: TheGhostMap_204469
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 0
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ASIN
        • value: B003QTD4T6
   • name: Kindle Book
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-kindle
   • onSaleDate: 10/19/2006
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/ghost-map-4a8176?.epub-sample.overdrive.com
3. • fileName: TheGhostMap_9781101158531_204469
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 0
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781101158531
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-overdrive
   • onSaleDate: 10/19/2006
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/ghost-map-4a8176?.epub-sample.overdrive.com

keywords

1. • value: History of Science
2. • value: English
3. • value: London
4. • value: disease
5. • value: Urban planning
6. • value: Historical
7. • value: ghost
8. • value: history of medicine
9. • value: Maps
10. • value: Science
11. • value: epidemiology
12. • value: England
13. • value: Public Health
14. • value: British History
15. • value: geography
16. • value: Cartography
17. • value: Medicine
18. • value: History
19. • value: thomas jefferson
20. • value: John Snow
21. • value: history books
22. • value: history of england
23. • value: science books
24. • value: ghost book
25. • value: history books for adults
26. • value: british gifts
27. • value: history gifts
28. • value: historical nonfiction best sellers
29. • value: nonfiction best sellers
30. • value: science gifts
31. • value: history buff gifts
32. • value: maps book
33. • value: nonfiction books best sellers
34. • value: map book
35. • value: pandemic book
36. • value: virus book

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Johnson, Steven
   • name: Steven Johnson

imprint

Riverhead Books

publishDate

2006-10-19T00:00:00-04:00

isOwnedByCollections

True

title

The Ghost Map

fullDescription

A National Bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book, and an Entertainment Weekly Best Book of the Year from the author of Extra Life
 
“By turns a medical thriller, detective story, and paean to city life, Johnson's account of the outbreak and its modern implications is a true page-turner.” —The Washington Post
“Thought-provoking.” —Entertainment Weekly
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.

gradeLevels

1. • value: Grade 10
2. • value: Grade 11

reviews

1. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from August 21, 2006
     On August 28, 1854, working-class Londoner Sarah Lewis tossed a bucket of soiled water into the cesspool of her squalid apartment building and triggered the deadliest outbreak of cholera in the city's history. In this tightly written page-turner, Johnson (Everything Bad Is Good for You
     ) uses his considerable skill to craft a story of suffering, perseverance and redemption that echoes to the present day. Describing a city and culture experiencing explosive growth, with its attendant promise and difficulty, Johnson builds the story around physician John Snow. In the face of a horrifying epidemic, Snow (pioneering developer of surgical anesthesia) posited the then radical theory that cholera was spread through contaminated water rather than through miasma, or smells in the air. Against considerable resistance from the medical and bureaucratic establishment, Snow persisted and, with hard work and groundbreaking research, helped to bring about a fundamental change in our understanding of disease and its spread. Johnson weaves in overlapping ideas about the growth of civilization, the organization of cities, and evolution to thrilling effect. From Snow's discovery of patient zero to Johnson's compelling argument for and celebration of cities, this makes for an illuminating and satisfying read. B&w illus.

2. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     February 26, 2007
     The idiosyncratic thinker and cultural historian Johnson leaps from trumpeting video games (in his previous book Everything Bad Is Good for You
     ) to uncovering the history of murderous cholera infestations in London and the scientific research that revealed the microbial origins of the outbreaks. Sklar reads Johnson's engaging book with a deep, measured baritone that is the embodiment of solidly backed reasonability. Sklar makes each word sound as if it has been chipped into a block of marble, there to rest for all eternity. This is not always conducive to following the flow of Johnson's narrative, but Sklar does well with his voice what Johnson seeks to do with his book: insert a slip into the history book, adding the mundane deaths of working souls and the audacious efforts of scientists into the story of the European march of progress. Simultaneous release with
     the Riverhead hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 21).

3. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     October 1, 2006
     Popular science author, blogger, and Discover magazine columnist Johnson (Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter) has written a fascinating book about a small slice of medical history: London's 1854 cholera epidemic. In particular, he brings to light the contributions of physician John Snow, a pioneer in public health who mapped the route of the disease and whose work continues to have great relevance for the 21st century. Though Johnson graphically describes the causes and effects of cholera, his imagery is not gratuitous, and he quotes historical documents in detail, often paraphrasing them in subsequent paragraphs to make them more understandable. This is a far more readable work on the subject than Margaret Pelling's Cholera, Fever and English Medicine 18251865. Johnson supplies chapter notes, a bibliography, and important information about other related books, e.g., Stephen Halliday's The Great Stink of London and Tom Koch's Cartographies of Disease. This extremely well-researched history is recommended for large public and high school libraries and for any library with history of medicine or public health collections. (Index not seen.) [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/06.]Martha E. Stone, Massachusetts General Hosp. Lib., Boston

     Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

4. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from October 1, 2006
     More than two million people were squeezed into 30 square miles in Victorian London, producing massive quantities of waste that, before modern public waste disposal systems, fouled both land and the Thames River. Indeed, Johnson says, "No extended description of London from that period failed to mention the stench of the city." Some, called miasmatists, believed foul odors caused disease. Many believed the lifestyles of the poor and ignorant masses made them more susceptible to illness. Thus, in late summer of 1854, when cholera began claiming poor -working-class residents of the Golden Square neighborhood, popular opinion blamed the city's excavation of a nearby burial ground. But Dr. John Snow, an anesthesia expert and consultant to the queen, and the Reverend Henry Whitehead thought the pathogen might have a different source. Their dogged efforts soon ended the deadly epidemic. They demonstrated that " Vibrio cholerae" had been contracted by drinking contaminated water from the neighborhood pump. In the short run, Snow and Whitehead saved hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives. In the long run, their work, part of which consisted of mapping the disease's spread, resulted in efficient public waste disposal systems and disease control measures that saved millions worldwide. And that work is hardly done.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)

popularity

1674

links

• self:
  • href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/4a817685-9ffe-4a78-9983-487bbf1225d4/metadata
  • type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json

id

4a817685-9ffe-4a78-9983-487bbf1225d4

starRating

4

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/1523-1/{4A817685-9FFE-4A78-9983-487BBF1225D4}IMG100.JPG
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/1523-1/{4A817685-9FFE-4A78-9983-487BBF1225D4}IMG200.JPG
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/1523-1/{4A817685-9FFE-4A78-9983-487BBF1225D4}IMG150.JPG
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/1523-1/{4A817685-9FFE-4A78-9983-487BBF1225D4}IMG400.JPG
  • type: image/jpeg

isPublicPerformanceAllowed

False

languages

1. • code: en
   • name: English

subjects

1. • value: Health & Fitness
2. • value: History
3. • value: Science
4. • value: Nonfiction

publishDateText

10/19/2006

otherFormatIdentifiers

1. • type: ISBN
   • value: 9781594489259

mediaType

eBook

shortDescription

A National Bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book, and an Entertainment Weekly Best Book of the Year from the author of Extra Life
 
“By turns a medical thriller, detective story, and paean to city life, Johnson's account of the outbreak and its modern implications is a true page-turner.” —The Washington Post
“Thought-provoking.” —Entertainment Weekly
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...

sortTitle

Ghost Map The Story of Londons Most Terrifying Epidemicand How It Changed Science Cities and the Modern World

crossRefId

204469

subtitle

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

publisher

Penguin Publishing Group

atos

11.2

tableOfContents

The Ghost MapPreface

Monday, August 28
The Night-Soil Men

Saturday, September 2
Eyes Sunk, Lips Dark Blue

Sunday, September 3
The Investigator

Monday, September 4
That Is To Say, Jo Has Not Yet Died

Tuesday. September 5
All Smell Is Disease

Wednesday, September 6
Building The Case

Friday, September 8
The Pump Handle

Conclusion
The Ghost Map

Epilogue
Broad Street Revisited

Author's Note
Acknowledgments
Appendix: Notes on Further Reading
Notes
Bibliography
Index

bisacCodes

1. • code: HEA039040
   • description: Health & Fitness / Diseases & Conditions / Contagious (incl. Pandemics)
2. • code: HIS015000
   • description: HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / General
3. • code: SCI034000
   • description: Science / History