The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
nomer15's review against another edition
Didn't make it quite halfway through this one. I found it dry and dull. Not the right book for me.
itsonlydoug's review against another edition
4.0
This is a hard book to discuss with people who aren't reading it simply because of the nature of the conditions of Victorian London and the affects of Cholera, but I found it fascinating. The writing was crisp and easy to follow. I will say that while reading this book, I did start to wash my hands more and think more deeply about the water I drink everyday.
xokarebear's review against another edition
3.0
Informative. A bit dry at times - I found myself having a hard time concentrating in certain sections because it was soooo detailed. Also will not get over this:
Page 85:
At the height of a nineteenth-century cholera outbreak, a thousand Londoners would often die of the disease in a matter of weeks -out of a population that was a quarter the size of modern New York.
Page 87:
During the epidemics of the late 1840s and the 1850s, a thousand Londoners would typically die of cholera in a matter of weeks- in a city a quarter the size of present-day New York--and the deaths would barely warrant a headline.
Like was this on purpose? Did the editor give up that day? Def upset me more than it should’ve lol
Page 85:
At the height of a nineteenth-century cholera outbreak, a thousand Londoners would often die of the disease in a matter of weeks -out of a population that was a quarter the size of modern New York.
Page 87:
During the epidemics of the late 1840s and the 1850s, a thousand Londoners would typically die of cholera in a matter of weeks- in a city a quarter the size of present-day New York--and the deaths would barely warrant a headline.
Like was this on purpose? Did the editor give up that day? Def upset me more than it should’ve lol
geve_'s review against another edition
3.0
I was already semi-familiar with this story, so I was disappointed with the actual telling of it. Rather than unfold like a mystery, it basically gets solved right away, then goes on about the people who didn't believe it and then a BUNCH of other weird shit. Wasn't the best constructed telling of this interesting part of history. Also went way off the rails several times about how urbanization is the best, then also for some reason about how terrorism is the worst part about urbanization. And went back to threat of nuclear terrorism like several times and somehow managed to talk about 9/11. So, yeah, didn't think I would be reading about 9/11 in a book about the 1854 cholera outbreak.
setnets's review against another edition
4.0
This is a very engaging history of the 1854 cholera epidemic and the work of Dr John Snow and Rev. Henry Whitehead to prove it was caused by fecal contamination leaking from a cesspool into the Broad Street pump. However, while Johnson's emphasis on Snow's map showing the geographic distribution of deaths during the outbreak over a Voronoi diagram to show street level proximity to the pump, and criticises other histories and textbooks for omitting the 'critical' Voronoi diagram, the version of the map reproduced in the book also lacks the Voronoi diagram. It's an unfortunate oversight on the part of the book's designers.