The Ghost Map Summary

In the summer of 1854, London was coming out as one of the most modern cities in the world. With nearly 2.4 million people living in the area at the time, the city’s infrastructure itself was having a hard time providing for the basic needs of its residents. The biggest problem existing within the city at that time was its waste removal system, or for better terms, its lack of one. Human waste was piling up everywhere, from people houses to the rivers and drinking water. This situation was the perfect breeding conditions for a number of diseases, and towards the end of that summer, one of the most deadly of them all took over. It took the work of both a physician and a local minister in order to discover the mysterious cause of the

In the book The Ghost Map, cholera was going into a massive outbreak in London during 1854. The story begins as one of the characters, baby Lewis, Contracts cholera, and when the mother washes diapers and cleans for the baby, she throws the water into the street. This leads to the outbreak. While the Board of Health believed the smell of the city was the cause of the outbreak, there was another citizen who believed otherwise. Henry Whitehead was a doctor who began to specialize in anesthesiology. Meanwhile, John Snow was researching his own theories, and he worked his way through the city to locate where high volumes of people were dying. While he was doing his research he began making a map, and he graphed where people were dying. Each house

In American industrial cities, late 1800s, Poor neighborhood were not the best place to live. With poor living conditions, poor sanitation and crowded housing, many epidemics of infectious disease spread into the poor population and touched even the wealthy class. Cities such as New York were crowded and workers were living in tenements, which were often cramped, poorly lit and poorly aerated. Moreover, these tenements lacked of adequate plumbing, therefore waste was flooding in the public streets. Streets was crowded of waste and garbage. Population was poorly nourished and has a poor life hygiene like water pollution and poisoned food and milk. Accordingly, infectious disease was the common death reason. Big cities had known outbreaks of

In the very first chapter, Steven Johnson begins to set the scene of how the overpopulation of London coupled with extreme levels of poverty created the perfect opportunity for Cholera to spread in the rapid manner that it did. On page one it states; “These were the London underclasses, at least a hundred thousand strong. So immense were their numbers that had the scavengers broken off and formed their own city, it would have been the fifth-largest in all of England.” Johnson mentions that the city of London had become a city of Scavengers, consisting of; bone-pickers, pure-finders, dredgermen, sewer-hunters and night-soil men. However, the harshest reflection of the Cholera epidemic of 1854 is conveyed by John Snow himself. On page 59 it states; “The young Snow observed

During the early 1850’s in London, life condition was very poor and unhealthy. people lived in complete filth, wasteful and unsanitized environments. While this situation occurred, the city continued to still suffer. Population boosted massively and as time went on, there began to be a lack of space throughout the neighborhood called Soho. Soho also experienced a drastic outbreak, which was cholera. Dr. John Snow was a revered anesthetist who carried out epidemiological work in Soho, London. The collision of two men named Dr. John Snow and Reverend Henry Whitehead helped them both discovered what was the true cause of the outbreak. By finding out what caused

Adam Hochschild’s “King Leopold’s Ghost” is an account of a man’s rise of power who was very cruel and did unimaginable things. When I began reading, I wasn’t sure where the novel was going, but I soon caught on to what Hochschild was revealing. As the story begins to unfold he tells a story of King Leopold II of Belgium who managed to seize land next to the Congo River in Africa. King Leopold used political manipulation and lies to get what he wanted. King Leopold had everyone fooled that he was a humanitarian and he was in the Congo for the greater good, but that was not the case. He claimed that civilizing the Congo would keep out “Arab slave- traders” to gain support of people, but Leopold wanted something else. Leopold was very

Many immigrants that come to Newark are forced to live in tight spaces, and even tenements, meaning that those who are the most targeted by this disease are the immigrants that come to Newark. Most people of higher classes began to accuse immigrants of bringing the disease, rather than focusing on eradicating the disease. Everyone wants to point fingers at immigrants because it is easier to point out those who are new to town, and are not pivotl to society. For these immigrants, many of them are victims to this disease all due to being forced in a poor lifestyle because of their financial status. Stuart Galishoff, a writer, also touches on Cholera hitting Newark, and writes a book titled, “Newark, the Nation’s unhealthiest City”. In this book he claims, “The epidemic raged out of control until late August. By a quirk of fate the last case occurred in early September in the same house in which the diseases had first appeared some two months earlier. In all, 127 had contracted Cholera and 65 died” (54). Through his perspective of Cholera coming to Newark, the audience is given a time frame of when this occurred, as well as the toll it took on its residents. This Information can be used to see how a disease can come to a city, collect victims, and then eventually leave. Cholera is a disease that is a part of Newark’s past, and through Galishoff words it becomes evident that Cholera is a cyclic disease whose

The Great Plague is one of the most talked about epidemics that London has ever faced. Almost anyone with a general idea of immunology or the history of western medicine will be able to identify the Great Plague of the 17th century as a major killer in the Stuart Period of London. However, the same person may not be aware of the crisis that occurred in Victorian London: cholera like every epidemic that has proceeded attempted to decimate the population. Cholera, a disease where severe dehydration along with the build of toxins in the gut, kills you in the matter of two days, without intravenously administered fluids death was all but certain. The Ghost Map, a historiographical novel written by Steven Johnson, tries to bring more awareness

The Ghost Map, by Steven Johnson, is a narrative that portrayed the determination of a man who wants to prove his theory. This narrative reveals the spread of a strange disease called cholera, and how people viewed science in 1854. Dr. John Snow used his integrative thinking to figure out how the disease was spreading so rapidly. John's ability to make a connection and get to the source of the spreading epidemic was marvelous, as he strived to save as many lives as he could. It is, therefore, important to have an open mind when learning why he did the things he did.

In The Wake of a Plague, written by Norman Cantor, focuses on the Black Death and the combinations of effects that it inflicted upon 14th century Europe. Cantor identifies the drastic changes in the religious, social, theological, geographical, psychological and economic aspects of Europe; although, his most intriguing points include the biomedical effects within the Plague. He recounts specific events that lead up to the plague, occurred during the plague and speaks of the aftermath concerning the plague. He wrote the book in order to relate the experiences of victims/survivors, as well as illustrate the impact of the plague upon the social structure, government, etc.

Steven Johnson is an accomplished author who tells a compelling, well written and informative book, The Ghost Map, which tells an intriguing story of the 1854 cholera outbreak in London while at the same time provides a wide array of information surrounding the thoughts and beliefs of the majority of the current society.

Rosemary Horrox's The Black Death5 is entirely confined to Europe in the areas that presently comprise the United Kingdom6, Italy and France, and covers the plague through the first to the fourth outbreak. Horrox's book is similar to Aberth's Great Mortality in that it provides a selection of primary sources which, although they span the various outbreaks, also give insight to the medieval reaction. Additionally, Horrox subsequently goes into the reactions and consequences of the plague in the same way that Aberth does in From the brink of the apocalypse, only she provides primary sources for these. Before each selection of primary sources Horrox puts them into context consequently providing a set-up to each group of sources. This method comes across as much more organized than Aberth's Apocalypse from a research standpoint as it is much easier to isolate the information one may need. Like Aberth, Horrox maintains an impartiality in her book so that the reader can read the primary sources and experience the emotions uninfluenced and unbiased.

“...for people that were infected and near their end, and delirious also, would run to those pits, wrapt in blankets or rugs and throw themselves in, and, as they said, bury themselves,” (Defoe 38). The reaction of society to the rumor and then presence of the plague was detrimental to the containment of the plague. The effect of the plague resulted in a progression of mixed reactions that Defoe details in his journal. As Defoe accounts, “…I mean such as had received the contagion, and had it really upon them, and in their blood, yet did not show the consequences of it in their countenances; nay, even were not sensible of it themselves… these breathed death in every place…” (123). In his examiner position, Defoe mentions, “The methods also in private families…used to have concealed the distemper and to have concealed the persons being sick , would have been such that the distemper would sometimes have seized a whole family before any visitors or examiners could have known of it,” (117). London society and surrounding communities did not understand the biological originator for the plague and as a response to their confusion, they relied on unfounded outlets, “…they ran to conjurers and witches, and all sorts of deceivers, to know what should become of them (who fed their fears, and kept them always alarmed and awake on purpose

What an interesting chain of events that has occurred in The Plague by Albert Camus. Right from the beginning, the reader is sucked into this town of clear denial when a rampant plague hits. It is very interesting how the townsfolk react to this type of trauma. Many people are in denial, simply not approaching the problem directly. For example, “the local press, so lavish the news about the rats...

In 1564 a bad case of the plague broke out in london and stratford when shakespeare was 3 months old. The city of London was of the dirtiest city during this time, there was no such thing as a sewage system, and the nasty human waste was dumped into rivers. The plague was usually spread from animals like rats and rodents to people.