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A review by emmabeckman
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—And How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson
3.0
I would definitely recommend this book as I think the topic is really fascinating and it does a fairly good job with the overview (I have nothing to compare to as yet so...). I didn't always love the writing style--it meandered quite a lot, in the "Before I tell you this, I need to give you all this context and to give you the context for that anecdote, I need to give you MORE context" way. It also seemed to make a weird attempt at imitating Dickens which I didn't love.
I definitely appreciated learning about Whitehead. I knew about John Snow but I didn't know anything about the curate who actually discovered Patient Zero. I also really liked reading about places that I actually spent a fair bit of time in when I was studying in London (there were coffee shops I liked on Berwick and Wardour).
While I understand the point of the epilogue, I really thought it was unnecessary. I enjoyed reading about the history and if I'm honest, the last 25 pages nearly gave me a panic attack. I wish this book had made a more general observation of the changing threats to the world without going into so much repetitive detail about terrorism and nuclear holocaust.
I definitely appreciated learning about Whitehead. I knew about John Snow but I didn't know anything about the curate who actually discovered Patient Zero. I also really liked reading about places that I actually spent a fair bit of time in when I was studying in London (there were coffee shops I liked on Berwick and Wardour).
While I understand the point of the epilogue, I really thought it was unnecessary. I enjoyed reading about the history and if I'm honest, the last 25 pages nearly gave me a panic attack. I wish this book had made a more general observation of the changing threats to the world without going into so much repetitive detail about terrorism and nuclear holocaust.