A review by japarto
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson

2.0

The Ghost Map started strong with descriptions of the London filth and scrappy jobs in chapter one. From there, the book was not nearly as interesting. There wasn’t enough of a story to fill the book or, if there was more, this author didn’t capture it. There were interesting facts inserted throughout the book that felt disjointed and meandering. Then, the epilogue turns into a plea to move toward a “city-world” while also arguing that this will open urbanites up to more terrorism or bombs. It felt the epilogue was that the author really wanted to write and that the story of cholera was more a tool to get to this end.