Description
A National Bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book, and an Entertainment Weekly Best Book of the YearIt’s the summer of 1854, and London is just emerging as some of the first modern cities on the planet. But lacking the infrastructure-garbage removal, clean water, sewers-necessary to toughen its impulsively expanding population, the city has turn into the very best breeding ground for a terrifying disease no one knows how to cure. As the cholera outbreak takes hold, a physician and a local curate are spurred to action-and in the long run solve the most pressing medical riddle of their time.In a triumph of multidisciplinary thinking, Johnson illuminates the intertwined histories of the spread of disease, the upward thrust of cities, and the nature of scientific inquiry, offering both a riveting history and a strong explanation of how it has shaped the world we are living in.