Investigating Cholera in Broad Street: A History in Documents - by Peter Vinten-Johansen (Paperback)

About the Book

A documentary history of a case that is foundational to the discipline of epidemiology: the investigations into the cause of the Cholera outbreak in 1854 London.

From the Back Cover

This book features various accounts of a cholera outbreak in West London that killed over 500 people in ten days during the late summer of 1854. What had caused the outbreak? Local authorities of the time were flummoxed about the mode by which the disease had spread. What has become known as "the Broad Street pump episode" is one of the most significant early examples of a team-oriented investigation into the causes of an epidemic--a hallmark of epidemiology and public health today.

This collection includes documents from the five separate investigations that were conducted into the possible causes. John Snow and Henry Whitehead made independent investigations; inspectors from the General Board of Health and the Sewer Commission, as well as a parish inquiry committee, also scrutinized the outbreak. This volume traces competing notions of how this disease was transmitted, starting with the first pandemic, which reached England in 1831, and it documents how they developed over time.

Review Quotes

"With highly engaging prose, accessible primary sources, and thought-provoking prompts, Peter Vinten-Johansen has produced an invaluable resource for students who want to understand better not only the monumental shifts in scientific methods and thinking concerning epidemics and disease in the nineteenth century, but also what it means to 'do' history, as he invites readers to conduct their own detective work and textual interpretations. An ideal blend of choose-your-own-adventure approach to storytelling combined with serious scholarship and documentation, Investigating Cholera will make the history of epidemics--and the classroom--come alive." -- Beth Linker, University of Pennsylvania

"Broad Street in London exerts an almost mythical hold over public health. But what do we really know about it? Peter Vinten-Johansen expertly deconstructs the legend by using a wide range of original documents to reconstruct the trajectories of cholera from India to Great Britain in the mid-nineteenth century. An exemplary model of its kind, this book is an essential resource for teachers and students of history and public health who want to understand how the knowledge and practices of medicine, science, and politics were brought together in an attempt to solve a pressing problem that had dire consequences at local and global scales." -- Graham Mooney, Johns Hopkins University

"This freshly edited collection of documents relating to the cholera outbreaks in mid-nineteenth-century Britain will prove invaluable for students and instructors alike. The material has been gathered to dispel the anachronistic view that John Snow was either a lone and derided genius or 'a prototypical germ-theorist.' The story of cholera investigation that emerges here is a collaborative one." -- Alannah Tomkins, Keele University

About the Author

Peter Vinten-Johansen is Associate Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University. He is the lead author of Cholera, Chloroform, and the Science of Medicine: A Life of John Snow, with co-authors Howard Brody, Nigel Paneth, Stephen Rachman, and Michael Rip, and he is the co-founder and content manager of the John Snow Archive and Research Companion.