The Ghost Map

By: Steven Johnson

Book Analysis By: Patricia Hill

Word Count: 988

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1. The Author

Steven Johnson is an award-winning author from Washington D.C. His graduate

degree in English Literature is from Columbia University and he currently is a writer in

New York University’s Department of Journalism. Johnson also writes for The New York

Times Magazine, Discover, and Wired. His book Ghost Map is recognized as one of the

ten best nonfiction books of 2006.

2. The Summary

This book concerns the story of the development of public sewer systems and disease

prevention. London suffered through a devastating outbreak of cholera in 1854. The

outbreak started within the Lewis family household. The cesspool in the family’s

basement was near the popular Broad Street well that people would use as a daily source

of water. The outbreak began when their cesspool leaked into the popular well. Dr. John

Snow developed the theory that the bacterium was within the well’s water. The medical

establishment at the time did not understand the connection because of their belief in the

Miasma theory that states that bacterium is only in the air. To prove the miasma theory

wrong, Snow asked officials to remove the handle from the Broad Street pump. As a

result, people stopped using the well and the disease outbreak diminished. To further

prove his theory of the bacteria in the water source, he created the Ghost Map that

indicated who and how many people died that lived around the Broad Street pump. Snow

discusses how this knowledge begins the modern treatment of public sewage.

3. The Structure

Ghost Map tells a very structured story concerning the 1854 cholera epidemic in

London. Each chapter title describes different dates that go in chronological order

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throughout the book. Through the chapters, the story depicts how the epidemic

worsened as time went on and how it affected the city.

4. The Thesis and Take-Home Message

Steven Johnson argues that this devastating outbreak of a deadly bacterium called

cholera was the major event that transformed city infrastructure and modernized

public health policy. Johnson believes that the Industrial Revolution created many

advances in technology and medicine but also created many problems that influenced

modern infrastructure and modern medicine.

5. The Sources

a. Primary

1) On the Mode and Communication of Cholera By Dr. John Snow (1855)

(Johnson, p.74)

2) The Cholera in Berwick Street By Henry Whitehead (1854) (Johnson, p. 169)

3) Times By G.B. Childs (1854) (Johnson, p.48)

b. Secondary

1) FMRI of Emotional Responses to Odors: Influence of Hedonic Valence and

Judgment, Handedness and, Gender By Jean-P. Royet (2003) (Johnson, p.

128)

2) London Labour and the London Poor By: Henry Mayhew (1985) (Johnson, p.

2)

3) Principles of Sanitary Science and the Public Health By W.T. Sedgwick

(1902) (Johnson, p. 194)

6. The Evidence

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Night-Soil Men

a. This chapter tells about the gruesome conditions London was

experiencing during the nineteenth century. The large class of people

called night soil men would work in the sewers of the city and make a

living by searching through human waste. Steven Johnson argues in

this chapter that it was the Lewis family’s baby that was the first

person to contract cholera during this particular outbreak.

b. Johnson argues that because of the major population increase, the

night soil men were unable to keep up with the people’s waste

therefore the waste became unmanageable.

c. People would have a cesspool in their basement for the waste they

produced. This would cause a stench within the city and filth on the

roads from people who did not have a place in their home to form a

cesspool. Johnson uses an article from the London Morning

Chronicles to describe what people would see walking down the road.

a. P. 10

All Smell Is Disease

a. Everyone thought that the disease was spreading though the air that

they called the miasma theory. Once this started becoming known

throughout the community, more medical personnel’s articles were

published in the newspapers proposing that the air was poisoned.

b. Due to the foul-smelling air throughout the city, many people believed

that the disease could be contracted through the air.

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c. Within Edwin Chadwick’s Report on the Sanitary Condition of the

Labouring Population of Great Britain: A Supplementary Report on

the Results of a Special Inquiry into the Practice of Interment in

Towns, he described how he would decide if the infectious disease

poisoned the air. If the air was completely foul smelling, the air was

thought to have disease within it. Chadwick went into the belly of the

beast and he reported that the smell was horrid.

a. P. 121

The Pump Handle

a. John Snow persuaded the Board of Governors to remove the pump

handle. He used his research of the deaths that had occurred as well as

the information he put together about the Broad Street pump. This

information is what convinced the governors to remove the pump

handle.

b. John Snow’s theory about the contaminated water pump was proven

correct after the governors gave consent of the removal of the pump

handle and the outbreak diminished.

c. In the article published by Globe, the epidemic was said to be

diminishing slowly but that the worst was over. The article also

presents that this change of pace of the outbreak was caused by the

removal of the pump handle.

d. P. 160-161

The Ghost Map

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a. This chapter explains the Ghost Map John Snow created in response to

his research of the deaths that occurred during the ten days of the

outbreak. This map reflected how many people died that lived near the

Broad Street well.

b. People did not start giving John Snow credit for his research until after

his death.

c. In William Farr’s Report on the Cholera Epidemic of 1866 in England,

John Snow is acknowledged for his research on cholera. In the report

Farr praises Snow’s 1854 research that helped the treatment of the

later epidemic in 1866.

d. P. 212

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Works Cited

"Business Book Authors." Default Podcast. Goose Education Media, n.d. Web. 05 Oct.

2014.

"Steven Johnson." Steven Johnson. Edge, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

"Steven Johnson." - Leigh Bureau. W. Colsten Leigh, Inc, n.d. Web. 03 Oct. 2014.

Johnson, Steven. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and

How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. New York: Riverhead,

2006. Print.

Johnson, Steven B. "Stevenberlinjohnson.com." 'stevenberlinjohnson.com' Typepad, 20

May 2011. Web. 03 Oct. 2014.

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