The Ghost Map
Click to look inside
Proud to be B-Corp
The feel-good place to buy books
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson
A thrilling historical account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London-and a brilliant exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease, cities, science, and the modern world. From the dynamic thinker routinely compared to Malcolm Gladwell, E. O. Wilson, and James Gleick, The Ghost Map is a riveting page-turner with a real-life historical hero that brilliantly illuminates the intertwined histories of the spread of viruses, rise of cities, and the nature of scientific inquiry. These are topics that have long obsessed Steven Johnson, and The Ghost Map is a true triumph of the kind of multidisciplinary thinking for which he's become famous-a book that, like the work of Jared Diamond, presents both vivid history and a powerful and provocative explanation of what it means for the world we live in. The Ghost Map takes place in the summer of 1854. A devastating cholera outbreak seizes London just as it is emerging as a modern city: more than 2 million people packed into a ten-mile circumference, a hub of travel and commerce, teeming with people from all over the world, continually pushing the limits of infrastructure that's outdated as soon as it's updated. Dr. John Snow-whose ideas about contagion had been dismissed by the scientific community-is spurred to intense action when the people in his neighborhood begin dying. With enthralling suspense, Johnson chronicles Snow's day-by-day efforts, as he risks his own life to prove how the epidemic is being spread. When he creates the map that traces the pattern of outbreak back to its source, Dr. Snow didn't just solve the most pressing medical riddle of his time. He ultimately established a precedent for the way modern city-dwellers, city planners, physicians, and public officials think about the spread of disease and the development of the modern urban environment. The Ghost Map is an endlessly compelling and utterly gripping account of that London summer of 1854, from the microbial level to the macrourban-theory level-including, most important, the human level.
Steven Johnson is co-author of The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame series with Greg Oliver. Johnson holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and has received several awards for investigative and general news reporting. He lives in Springfield, VA. Heath McCoy is a pop culture reporter and rock critic for the Calgary Herald. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Pain and Passion: The History of Stampede Wrestling (ECW, October 2007). Irvin Muchnick has written about a variety of subjects including wrestling for many publications, including the Village Voice and The New York Times. His new book, Wrestling Babylon: Piledriving Tales of Drugs, Sex, Death and Scandal, was released by ECW in April 2007. Greg Oliver is a writer and editor from Toronto. Oliver has covered professional wrestling for 20 years through the Slam! Wrestling Web site, the Canadian Wrestling Report newsletter, magazines and newspapers. With Steven Johnson, he has written The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame series.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781594489259 |
| ISBN 10 | 1594489254 |
| Title | The Ghost Map |
| Author | Steven Johnson |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Penguin Putnam Inc |
| Year published | 2006-11-01 |
| Number of pages | 352 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |