kickerdad - , reviewed on 11/1/2020 + 123 more book reviews

I was worried after reading some other reviews about how 'graphic' this may be. I shouldn't have been. "The Ghost Map" is a fascinating - and timely - account of the 1854 cholera epidemic outbreak in London. Steve Johnson does a fabulous job of weaving the threads of this historic event together. Not only with personal details extracted from historical records but the psycho-social and scientific climate of the time. It is a wonderful depiction of how science can blind us to the realities around us; how the interpretation of data based on an incorrect assumption can lead to inaccurate results. Johnson lays out how the mobility of society into urban populations has had an impact on our lives, our health, and overall existence; and in turn how our urban environments have had an impact on themselves.
The epilogue seems awkward and incongruent with the rest of the book - other than using the events of the epidemic to point out that science may not always have the answer. And just because we can do something doesn't mean we should. [4/5]

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