I haven’t read Steven Johnson Berlin’s book, The Ghost Map, but the Financial Times ran a review recently. Read more about SJB and his writings on his blog.

I wonder how Steven Johnson pitched this book to his agent. Maybe he
said something like this: "I want to describe how the cause of cholera
was discovered in London in 1854 and how it made possible the enormous
cities of today. I plan to write a lot about excrement, sewers and how
horrible it is to die as your body suddenly expels litres of water and
waste." Mmmm, nice. You need a strong digestion to get through the
resulting book, The Ghost Map. If your stomach is up to it, your brain
will benefit. The story of how John Snow, a London physician, proved
that cholera came from drinking infected water, not from breathing
noxious air, has been told repeatedly, but never with such intellectual
dexterity and, despite the topic, so engagingly.