Ghost Map, Written by Steven Berlin Johnson,

Ghost Map, written by Steven Berlin Johnson, is a book that is based on the most terrifying epidemic which broke out in London. This book describes how the city and science was changed after this epidemic. This book is indeed a must read because the writer of this book describes one of the most deadly outbreaks of cholera on Victorian London, in relation to how it changed the cities, our scientific approach towards the disease in the modern world and much more.

The idea of gemeinschaft was incorporated in this piece of writing, describing how an epidemic affects a city of traditions, values, language and common (Cities, 2001). There are two main people that have been talked about in this book and play the central protagonists. The first one is Dr. John Snow and the second one is Reverend Henry Whitehead. The map of the cholera cases is created by Dr.

Snow; meanwhile Whitehead played an important role in determining the reason that is behind this outbreak of cholera by making use of his extensive knowledge. It should be noted that Dr. Snow was one of the most respected anesthetist in the city and he is the one who carried out all the epidemiological work in London during the epidemic of cholera (Cholera, 2010). During the middle of the nineteenth century, Snow discovered the reason behind the Cholera contamination.

It turned out that the people were getting infected with cholera because they were getting their drinking water from the supply that was labeled as the Broad Street Pump. The book was published in the 2006; meanwhile the outbreak of Cholera in Victorian London took place from the year 1848-49. Statistics have revealed that this cholera contamination killed almost 54,000-62,000 people in the city another outbreak of cholera in London that took place from the year 1953-54 killed almost another 31,000 people in London (Kohn, 2008).

As mentioned earlier, the outbreak of cholera in the year 1854 was indeed a deadly one that offered many challenges to the people of Soho, London. People knew that it was not the first outbreak and it wouldn't be the last either. The significance of this outbreak was that this compelled two doctors to start research on the disease and its underlying cause. As discussed in the beginning of this paper, Dr.

Snow was the one who started a separate inquiry in which he was determined to prove to the people that causative agent of this disease was waterborne. This was a suggestion that had previously been rejected by almost all the scientists of that time. On the other hand, Dr. Whitehead had started his own research in the matter and he also wanted to prove Snow wrong with his take on the subject.

Eventually, through the course of the book we find out that these two significant people decide to merge their efforts, the visual presentation of which is the book The Ghost Map. It explains the work of these two people in great detail including how the two of them sit down and establish patterns of the areas that had most severely been affected by the disease and how they could change the contemporary believes of the people of the spread of this deadly disease.

The result of these efforts was that health reforms were made very extensively. It should be noted that these reforms helped to change the conditions of the cities like never before. The cities were made livable in every sense. Improvements were made in sanitation and sewage and all such conditions were eliminated that could cause an outbreak of a disease to take place and thus the city was made as modern as possible.

Many analysts term The Ghost Map as a surprisingly detailed as well as interesting reconstruction of the outbreak of cholera that plagued the city of London back in the year 1954. Johnson, the author of this book is also the author of Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software.

He has written The Ghost Map in a way that catches the attention of the reader because he has not only described the outbreak from the point-of-view of the people, but also from the perspective of the bacterium that was responsible for this epidemic, V. Cholerae and the city of London as well. In this book, the author has explored how London that was "a creature with a violation of its own," was containing almost two million people inside it, its circumference being thirty miles only.

The writer then goes on explain how the bacterium makes use of the human body (calling it a factory in the book) so that it can then reproduce inside it. It should be remembered that the map of the cholera outbreak devised by Dr. Snow not only made him the father of epidemiological studies but it made it possible for the modern researchers, even after 150 years, to make use of this method so that they can get information on any disease.

This book also holds significance from the aspect that the work done by Snow and Whitehead are remembered as centers of production and creativity and are used by some of the most environmentally friendly and healthy communities all over the world. This book is not only important with respect to cholera only and the outbreak that killed thousands during that time, it is about the small details that are important when there is an epidemic of a disease in a city.

There are many lessons that are to be learned from this book. Just as it is explained that how many people reject the idea that was presented by Snow, Whitehead being one of these people, just because of their own motives or because they are seeking to please a certain group of people. This book lays emphasis on the fact that whenever there is an epidemic, the people of the city should make.