The Ghost Map Summary

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Recommended: Origins of public health policy

1. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Steve Johnson has a Bachelor's degree in Semiotics from Brown University and a Master's in English Literature from Columbia. According to his website, Johnson is best known as the author of four best-selling books concerning the intersection of science, technology, and personal experience. He serves as contributing editor for Wired Magazine, a monthly columnist for Discover Magazine, and writer in residence at the NYU Department of Journalism. His lectures for both corporate and education institutions focus mostly on technological, scientific, and cultural issues. His past works have been published in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. With all of these accomplishments, Newsweek named him one of the "Fifty People Who Matter Most on the Internet." 2. THE SUMMARY: The Ghost Map covers a cholera outbreak in London in the year 1854. In 1854, London had a population of about two million and growing. London lacked the necessary tools to support its city. Garbage was never removed, the water was filthy, and the sewage …show more content…

The opening chapter discusses human waste in great detail. Each chapter shows the author conversing on a different conversation or topic. The chapters are not placed sequentially. The first few chapters introduce a different important component into the storyline, provide background material from different sources and describe a day's events early in the outbreak. Johnson will start discussing waste, cholera, or miasma, and then make his way back to the two men who changed history: Snow and Whitehead. Johnson says on his website that he wanted each chapter to chronologically depict the days of the epidemic, but also have it connect to one of the books major themes. This allows the chapters of the book to also serve as a standalone essay. Johnson says he is proud that no reviews of his book have mentioned this structure, and no reader has asked him about

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