Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

ghost map indeed

I just finished reading The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson’s recent book about a 1854 cholera outbreak in London and the research that led to a scientific breakthrough in discovering the origins of the disease (contaminated water) — as well as a famous map (PDF) that’s held up as a shining example of early information design. While I was annoyed at times by Johnson’s habit of frequently repeating himself (I had this complaint with his last book, Everything Bad Is Good for You), I found it to be an enjoyable read — as much as one can enjoy a book about cholera.

I just have one question (and a bit of a rant): Where’s the map?

Snow’s map is famous for the way that it offers a visual correlation between the number of deaths in a given building and its proximity to a particular water pump, reinforcing his conclusion that this particular pump must be the source of the lethal bacterium.

Portions of the map appear throughout Johnson’s book, mainly as art elements. There is a clear version of the map on page 190 (hardcover edition), but it’s been cropped down from the original.

Not only that, but Johnson makes a big point about discussing a second version of Snow’s map, which adds a winding dotted line (a Voronoi diagram) to denote the swath of houses for whom the contaminated water pump was the closest available water source. The original map is the most famous, but Johnson argues that this second map, with the addition of that dotted line, is the superior map. The second map is nowhere to be found. (I even had trouble finding it in a Google search. The closest I came was a cropped-down version in a PowerPoint presentation from Michigan State University.)

If you’re going to name your book after a map, spend 3/4 of said book explaining the research that led to the creation of the map, and then spend another 10 pages or so talking specifically about the map, wouldn’t it make sense to include a full copy of said map? Not to mention the version of said map that you’ve spent many paragraphs endorsing?