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

4.0

I love learning about specific times and events that help explain our world. This is one of those books - Cholera. It killed so many people and its causes were unknown. Treatments were a mystery because the medical establishment didn't know how Cholera killed victims.

John Snow - not the Night's Watch Commander from Song of Fire and Ice - the scientist and doctor of Victorian London studied the outbreak and traced it to the water - to the well - where the cholera originated. Together with skeptic Henry Whitehead, they figured out how to isolate and restrict transmission. They discovered the keys beyond the brutal killer and turned it into a terror of the past.