Good The Ghost Map Book Review Book Review Example

For a modern person from America or London, it would be difficult to describe the historical perspective of cholera for them. In other words, anyone from a modern city that enjoys more than a hundred years of carefully-planned sewer system it will be difficult to understand anything about cholera. One of the most interesting books connecting sewer system and a cholera outbreak is "The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World." The book was written by Steven Johnson and published in 2006, and falls into the genre of nonfictional books. The Ghost Map was ranked among the best ten nonfiction books in 2006. In addition, the book was runner-up for the “National Academies Communication Award” in 2006. The author of this book has written other works such as “Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software” and “Where Good Ideas Come From”.
In those days, prior to 1854, cholera was a life-threatening disease that repeatedly struck different cities. However, despite the continued outbreak of the disease, no one knew the causes. Some people had tried to put some theories to explain the cause, but they were wrong. Among those principles formulated were fear of disease and lack of faith. In the city of London, cholera struck again and again. These cases of outbreaks were more frequent in areas inhabited by the poor.
The Ghost Map provides a robust analysis of the situation in the London City. Dr. Snow examines modern theories explaining the cause of cholera and rejects them based on evidence available. After the analysis of the theories, the doctor forms a new theory that is based on the data collected. Dr. Snow presents his findings in the form of a simple graphic that can be easily understood. This graphic is what forms the title of the book, The Ghost Map. Together with Henry Whitehead, Dr. Snow makes everyone know that drinking contaminated causes cholera.
The book by Steven Johnson clearly depicts the importance of analyzing theories based on evidence in order to extract the evidence they contain. Dr. Snow presents an excellent example of what scientists are supposed to do. They are expected to analyze the theories present, and if they are not satisfactory, they collect valuable data that can help them come up with better theories. Given the title of book, I expected to see the author discussing more on the map. However, the map by Dr. Snow was not a very crucial analysis tool since there are scientists who had drawn a map long before Dr. Snow. The map in by Dr. Snow was more of a communication tool for his report rather than a discovery of the cause of cholera.
The Ghost Map demonstrates the steps Dr. Snow used to develop his theory on the cause of the cholera outbreak. These steps include collecting data, performing tests and so forth. Therefore, we can say that the achievements of Dr. Snow is not only about drawing a map but also developing a new way of thinking on how diseases spread. Despite the issues in epilogue and a bit of repetitiveness, The Ghost Map is an excellent book. The author is fantastic and understands science as well as history.
In the conclusion, the author makes some good points. However, it is a bit repetitive. In the epilogue, the author somehow hurts the book. The author tries to showcase the relevance of what happened in 1850’s in London in today’s world. However, this is done in a forceful and unnecessary way. Hence, it would be significant to skip the epilogue when reading the book.