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The Ghost Map
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
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Publisher's Summary
The Ghost Map takes place in the summer of 1854. A devastating cholera outbreak seizes London just as it is emerging as a modern city: more than two million people packed into a 10-mile circumference, a hub of travel and commerce, teeming with people from all over the world, continually pushing the limits of infrastructure that's outdated as soon as it's updated. Dr. John Snow, whose ideas about contagion had been dismissed by the scientific community, is spurred to intense action when the people in his neighborhood begin dying. With enthralling suspense, Johnson chronicles Snow's day-by-day efforts as he risks his own life to prove how the epidemic is being spread.
From the dynamic thinker routinely compared to Malcolm Gladwell, E.O. Wilson, and James Gleick, The Ghost Map is a riveting story with a real-life historical hero. It brilliantly illuminates the intertwined histories of the spread of viruses, the rise of cities, and the nature of scientific inquiry. These are topics that have long obsessed Johnson, and The Ghost Map is a true triumph of the kind of multidisciplinary thinking for which he's become famous. This is a book that, like the work of Jared Diamond, presents both vivid history and a powerful and provocative explanation of what it means for the world we live in.
Critic Reviews
"An illuminating and satisfying read." (Publishers Weekly)
"A formidable gathering of small facts and big ideas." (New York Times Book Review)
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What listeners say about The Ghost Map
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Matthew Groom
- 12-04-08
It was okay until the end
This audiobook is a somewhat interesting account of the deadliest out break of Cholera in London's storied history of outbreaks. It gives an interesting account of city life for lower class Londoners of the day and insights as to how the medical and scientific community of the day operated. It gets a bit dry after the first half, and the ending of the book leaves the subject almost entirely to speculate about the future threats of bioterrorism and nuclear warfare.
The "Conclusion" and "Epilogue" of this audiobook are full of proselytizing about the greatness and moral superiority of city dwellers who are apparently more intelligent, more tolerant, more environmentally conscious, just all around better people. This was written by an inhabitant of NYC who says he would only move after 50,000 people had died in a viral catastrophe, and then only reluctantly.
He also theorizes that cities are more likely to survive a long term shortage of oil, since people in cities don't drive cars as often. This is laughable. How does food get into the city? ON A TRUCK. Also ships. How does it get from the port? ON A TRUCK. What do trucks (and most ships) need to run? Oil and gas.
There is also a good bit of detail about how viruses work and how the microbial world operates, but this books insight is greatly damaged by implying that people who believe in God are superstitious obstructionists, since God cannot be proven, but people who are not willing to betray a peaceful and spacious existence outside of cities are an affront to mother Gaia, since Gaia is DEFINITELY real. No proof required.
Other than the political proselytizing and speculation, this is an okay book.
41 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Nelle
- 08-12-09
Enjoyable until the epilogue
When covering the events and people related to the Cholera outbreak of 1854, this book was enjoyable. Sadly, the epilogue was not as informative or enjoyable because of several inaccuracies relating to the influenza virus. Mr. Johnson failed to mention that one of the reasons that Avian influenza is so virulent is because it is a novel virus, i.e. a virus that the human population has not been previously exposed to, leading to a population that does not have immunity to the virus. Mr. Johnson also incorrectly states that the influenza virus is a DNA virus--influenza is an RNA virus.
28 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Cheryl Crane
- 01-14-07
Outstanding
For all those interested in public health, biostatistics, epidemiology, polution, city planning, civil engineering, anthropology, sociology, industrial hygiene, & victorian history this is a wondrful way to spend about 6 hours. The reader is the books equal, both are impressive.
16 people found this helpful
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Overall
- D. Littman
- 01-04-07
a entertaining polymath book
The Ghost Map is a great combination of learning about 19th century London, about epidemiology, biostatistics, public infrastructure. All this is wrapped up as a detective story. The narration & sound is outstanding. At its core, Ghost Map tells the story of a cholera outbreak in London in the 1850s, and how an enterprising doctor & minister figured out its source. The book does tend to stumble a bit after this story is told (which consumes more than 6 hours of the 8 hour book). In the final section, the author seeks to explicate the modern implications of what John Snow accomplished in his 1850s investigation. This last section is weak when it talks about computer mapping & electronic directories, but much stronger in its discussion of avian flu & contingency planning for same. I actually recommended the book to several people at my company who are deeply immersed in the flu planning. It should be a very readable antidote to the usual stuff they have to consume,
14 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Alex
- 03-19-07
Great Stuff!
I was already familiar with most of the story, but I loved the detail and personalities. It is not for the squeamish since it deals with sewage systems and human waste, but if you can get over that it is wonderful. It is *not* incongruous to be talking about sociology and mapmaking since this a premier example of mapmaking for sociology and medical science. One of the best science books I have heard.
9 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Alison
- 01-24-12
Should've Been Great
This book should have been interesting: the cholera epidemic in Victorian London, the birth of germ theory, the beginnings of epidemiology. Unfortunately the author couldn't keep his eye on the prize. The story was disjointed, and rambled and I had a hard time paying attention. Pity.
7 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Mark Patterson
- 02-05-07
Two books-- one great, one not so
Most of the book is a fascinating mix of Victorian English social history and medical detective story. The last quarter changes gears dramatically to become a paean to urbanization and the power of mapmaking in sociological study. Pretty incongruous. Still, it's worth it-- especially if you need a shorter book.
7 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Qbook
- 09-07-07
A Good History of Scienc Book
This is the story of Dr. John Snow and the development of modern epidemiology and germ theory. As a history of science read, this book is very good. It has lots of drama and reads like a mystery. I did learn about Snows research into anesthesia, something I didn't know about. Most of the book centers around the cholera outbreak in London and Snow's work to counter the generally accepted miasma theory. This is a great book for young researchers to see how prevailing paradigms can be completely wrong, yet generally accepted and even unquestioned.
6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Discerning reader
- 06-22-07
Didactic and unfocused
This book was impossible to get through. I have been interested in history of medicine for a long time. Thus, when I found this audiobook about Dr. Snow’s epidemiological investigation of Cholera epidemic, I was excited. After listening to first hour of the book I was sure I had mistakenly downloaded another book. I was wrong however. What you have here is an incredibly detailed history of town planning of London, prevailing theories about disease causation and so on only tangentially connected to the main story (which occupies only 5% of the book I think). After 5 minutes talking about Cholera the author goes off discussing a side topic for 15-20 minutes. I gave up after 5 hours. In short, if you are looking for scholarly work about these topics (not Cholera) this book is for you. Otherwise stay away.
6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 07-03-10
Interesting History and Urban Geography
This book is really a hidden gem for history buffs. It did a lot to paint a portrait of the lives of the common folks of London, and by extension, other major cities of the mid-19th century. I found its insights into developments in public sanitation and its impact on modern cities very interesting. It also does a good job of showing how early scientists struggled to win support for ideas that we now view as obvious. Also, the book is great for illustrating how seemingly average people can have a big impact on their communities and the world. Finally, one thing it does is make me happy that I don't have to clean any cess-pits. Enjoy.
4 people found this helpful
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Powerful Book for Business and Personal Decisions
- By Robert Z on 09-30-18
By: Steven Johnson
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Enemy of All Mankind
- A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Henry Every was the 17th century’s most notorious pirate. The press published wildly popular - and wildly inaccurate - reports of his nefarious adventures. The British government offered enormous bounties for his capture, alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven Johnson argues that Every’s most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a major shift in the global economy. Enemy of All Mankind focuses on one key event - the attack on an Indian treasure ship by Every and his crew - and its surprising repercussions across time and space.
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Pirates and the stock market
- By Riley P. on 09-08-20
By: Steven Johnson
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The Invention of Air
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling author Steven Johnson recounts - in dazzling, multidisciplinary fashion - the story of the brilliant man who embodied the relationship between science, religion, and politics for America's Founding Fathers. The Invention of Air is a title of world-changing ideas wrapped around a compelling narrative, a story of genius and violence and friendship in the midst of sweeping historical change that provokes us to recast our understanding of the Founding Fathers.
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Good scientific history
- By Roger on 05-03-10
By: Steven Johnson
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Extra Life
- A Short History of Living Longer
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Steven Johnson
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1920, at the end of the last major pandemic, global life expectancy was just over 40 years. Today, in many parts of the world, human beings can expect to live more than 80 years. As a species, we have doubled our life expectancy in just one century. There are few measures of human progress more astonishing than this increased longevity.
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Thought provoking
- By MacGyver124 on 06-14-21
By: Steven Johnson
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Pandemic
- Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond
- By: Sonia Shah
- Narrated by: Sonia Shah
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Interweaving history, original reportage, and personal narrative, Pandemic explores the origin of epidemics, drawing parallels between the story of cholera - one of history's most disruptive and deadly pathogens - and the new pathogens that stalk humankind today, from Ebola and avian influenza to drug-resistant superbugs.
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You will probably enjoy "Spillover" more
- By serine on 03-01-16
By: Sonia Shah
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The Great Cat Massacre
- And Other Episodes in French Cultural History
- By: Robert Darnton
- Narrated by: Ken Kliban
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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The landmark history of France and French culture in the 18th century, a winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.  Â
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Nice....
- By Alednam A Uonopk on 11-06-22
By: Robert Darnton
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Farsighted
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: George Newbern, Steven Johnson - introduction
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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There's no one-size-fits-all model for the important decisions that can alter the course of a life, an organization, or a civilization. But Farsighted explains how we can approach these choices more effectively and how we can appreciate the subtle intelligence of choices that shaped our broader social history.Â
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Powerful Book for Business and Personal Decisions
- By Robert Z on 09-30-18
By: Steven Johnson
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Wonderland
- How Play Made the Modern World
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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From the New York Times best-selling author of How We Got to Now and Extra Life, a look at the world-changing innovations we made while keeping ourselves entertained. This history of popular entertainment takes a long-zoom approach, contending that the pursuit of novelty and wonder is a powerful driver of world-shaping technological change. Steven Johnson argues that, throughout history, the cutting edge of innovation lies wherever people are working the hardest to keep themselves and others amused.
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It will delight you
- By T. Leach on 02-09-17
By: Steven Johnson
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Where Good Ideas Come From
- The Natural History of Innovation
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Eric Singer
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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What sparks the flash of brilliance? How does groundbreaking innovation happen? Answering in his infectious, culturally omnivorous style, using his fluency in fields from neurobiology to popular culture, Johnson provides the complete, exciting, and encouraging story of how we generate the ideas that push our careers, our lives, our society, and our culture forward.
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Ambitious
- By Roy on 12-08-10
By: Steven Johnson
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Why Information Grows
- The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies
- By: César Hidalgo
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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What is economic growth? And why, historically, has it occurred in only a few places? Previous efforts to answer these questions have focused on institutions, geography, finances, and psychology. But according to MIT's anti-disciplinarian César Hidalgo, understanding the nature of economic growth demands transcending the social sciences and including the natural sciences of information, networks, and complexity. To understand the growth of economies, Hidalgo argues, we first need to understand the growth of order.
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Great book!
- By bpjammin on 01-07-17
By: César Hidalgo
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The Remedy
- Robert Koch, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Quest to Cure Tuberculosis
- By: Thomas Goetz
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1875, tuberculosis was the deadliest disease in the world, accountable for a third of all deaths. A diagnosis of TB - often called consumption - was a death sentence. Then, in a triumph of medical science, a German doctor named Robert Koch deployed an unprecedented scientific rigor to discover the bacteria that caused TB. Koch soon embarked on a remedy - a remedy that would be his undoing. When Koch announced his cure for consumption, Arthur Conan Doyle, then a small-town doctor in England and sometime writer, went to Berlin to cover the event.
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thought-provoking
- By Jean on 07-06-14
By: Thomas Goetz
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The Demon Under The Microscope
- By: Thomas Hager
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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The Nazis discovered it. The Allies won the war with it. It conquered diseases, changed laws, and single-handedly launched the era of antibiotics. This incredible discovery was sulfa, the first antibiotic medication. In The Demon Under the Microscope, Thomas Hager chronicles the dramatic history of the drug that shaped modern medicine.
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Great Book!!!!!
- By Amazon Customer on 05-21-08
By: Thomas Hager
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How We Got to Now
- Six Innovations That Made the Modern World
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In this volume, Steven Johnson explores the history of innovation over centuries, tracing facets of modern life (refrigeration, clocks, and eyeglass lenses, to name a few) from their creation by hobbyists, amateurs, and entrepreneurs to their unintended historical consequences. Filled with surprising stories of accidental genius and brilliant mistakes - from the French publisher who invented the phonograph before Edison but forgot to include playback, to the Hollywood movie star who helped invent the technology behind Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
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cool title, unexceptional content
- By Andy on 10-10-14
By: Steven Johnson
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Miracle Cure
- The Creation of Antibiotics and the Birth of Modern Medicine
- By: William Rosen
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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As late as the 1930s, virtually no drug intended for sickness did any good; doctors could set bones, deliver babies, and offer palliative care. That all changed in less than a generation with the discovery and development of a new category of medicine known as antibiotics. By 1955 the age-old evolutionary relationship between humans and microbes had been transformed, trivializing once-deadly infections.
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Excellence
- By xar adelberg on 09-18-17
By: William Rosen
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The Great Mortality
- An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time
- By: John Kelly
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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La moria grandissima began its terrible journey across the European and Asian continents in 1347, leaving unimaginable devastation in its wake. Five years later, 25 million people were dead, felled by the scourge that would come to be called the Black Death. The Great Mortality is the extraordinary epic account of the worst natural disaster in European history - a drama of courage, cowardice, misery, madness, and sacrifice that brilliantly illuminates humankind's darkest days when an old world ended and a new world was born.
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OUTSTANDING
- By brooke browning on 08-04-19
By: John Kelly
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Everything Bad Is Good for You
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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From the author of the New York Times bestseller Mind Wide Open comes a groundbreaking assessment of popular culture as it's never been considered before: through the lens of intelligence. Forget everything you’ve ever read about the age of dumbed-down, instant-gratification culture.
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great material, but outdated.
- By Anonymous User on 01-15-18
By: Steven Johnson