Diana Ivans
The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World,
by Stephen B. Johnson, The Penguin Group Inc, 2006. 256 pages. ISBN 1-59448-925-4
The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World written by Stephen Johnson, discusses the development and successes of modern life and urbanization and how breakthroughs in public health and epidemiologic science made this possible. Known for his books on innovation and modern culture, Johnson uses the events of the 1854 Cholera epidemic in London to describe the development of new ideas and how with every new discovery societal transformation occurs. With an emphasis on the roles and contributions of John Snow, a local physician, and Henry Whitehead, a local, well-respected clergyman, Johnson effectively develops 19th Century London into the modern metropolitan life as we know it today. He successfully meshes multiple components of the past, present and future into one cohesive story using creative yet accessible language in a brief 250 pages that any person could enjoy.
The books’ effective organization gives an element of a historical mystery novel. Chapter by chapter Johnson chips away at the history of 19th century London using vivid descriptions of demographics, social class, sanitation practices and city design while providing a play-by-play description of the unfolding events of the epidemic as they took place dating from August 28th to Friday September 8th. Throughout the book Johnson ingeniously combines the historical background of the key investigators, John Snow and Henry Whitehead, as they spend their time surveying conditions of “excrement and death” that engulfed the streets. As an example, chapter one Monday, August 28 – Night Soil Men combines a depiction of unimaginable sanitary conditions with the first key event that contributed to the Cholera outbreak.
As obvious as they may seem in our modern day life, sanitation and cleanliness were not a priority. He builds upon the unsanitary conditions of the time to transition into an in depth discussion of the microorganisms that thrive in human wasted and filth, particularly Vibrio cholerae, which was responsible for the demise of 616 individuals in Soho. By providing the reader with the history, pathophysiolgy and descriptions of the signs and symptoms of cholera, he permits one with minimal knowledge of the illness to comprehend the impact of events to come.
During this time in London “you could leave town for the weekend and come back to find ten percent of you neighbors” dead. Johnson states in his conclusion on page 203 that “this was life in the big city.” The removal of the handle to the Broad Street pump transformed it all. This was the greatest breakthrough in social history. Due to Snows’ observation of incidence, distribution and mapping of disease outbreaks, contaminated drinking water was found to be the cause, igniting a movement of citywide sanitation systems.
The detailed historical recap of the living conditions and memoirs of Whitehead and Snow, serve as a basis to address a wide range of topics that Johnson carefully crafts into his story. He portrays an interconnection and relations between worlds of bacteria and human life and the spread of disease and the spread of information. Urbanization and the concentration of people in one central area increase the rate disease spreads, but Johnson sees “density as a positive force,” increasing “institutional, technological, economic and scientific developments.” As information exchange becomes more accessible, the faster the evolutions of new ideas occur, discoveries are made and interventions are implemented. Because of Snow and Whiteheads epidemiologic discovery, we were able to increase the “advantages of urban living while minimizing dangers” of disease. Quoting Jane Jacobs in Death and Life of the Great American City Johnson writes, “Cities were once the most helpless and devastated victims of disease, but they became great disease conquerors.”
Johnson spends his conclusion discussing how the advancements in knowledge of bacteriology, advancements in sanitation systems and waste recycling contribute to the coffeehouse culture of today’s cities where an abundance of people, media and resources come together to insure our survival. He displays an overt confidence in modern technology in the prevention of disease where “microbes wont be able to compete” with the advancements we will have achieved by the projected year of 2025. I believe Johnson displays a false sense of hope, for things of this measure take time to mainstream. It took Snow five years to get his waterborne theory of Cholera accepted amongst colleagues, it may take much longer to wipe out all microorganisms that ail us. Every year we have profound breakthroughs in medicine, but even with all the advanced knowledge and technology we have, we have still yet to conquer some of the most basic interventions that Snow and Whitehead are credited for in our world today: clean water and sanitation.
Johnson wraps up his book by making a broad statement that, given our history of disease, disasters and modern day threats to cities, the resilience of its residents are quite remarkable. People manage to overcome devastation and continue to reside in metropolitan areas because of the lifestyle it provides, suggesting that the value of city life supersedes the value of a few lost lives. He suggest that if we commit ourselves to public health interventions of the past, present and futures years to come, the irreversible urbanization Snow made possible will continue to flourish.
The Ghost map humbly reminds you of the tragedy of disease and marked accomplishments of our past. Johnson intertwines history, progress, innovation and ideas in a concise interconnected way to portray how our modern culture came into existence. Sanitation systems, waste recycling, advancement in disease management and medical technology has become such an indispensable part of the survival of civilizations. By cracking the case of cholera, we have been provided with health, wealth, sustainability and prosperity that metropolitan life has to offer us today.
