An excellent overview of cholera from it's first origins (in written history) to today (before reading this book I didn't know that cholera is still endemic in many parts of the world), while focusing most of its attention on cholera in England during the Victorian times. Accessible, educational and thought-provoking, I highly recommend this book for those interested in the topic.

This book is timely, and a rare example of nonfiction that reads like fiction. As a nonfiction junkie, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it's an automatic recommend for me in the future!

Cholera has long ravaged mankind, and yet we still don’t fully understand it. To begin to do so, though, the author walks us through each outbreak in the U.K. that occurred in the 1800s.

Each chapter focuses on something different, so some are more interesting (and easier to read) than others. For instance, the chapter on John Snow and his contribution to cholera research was quite fascinating.

At the end, the author reveals that we still lose as least 200,000 people per year to this disease. Even worse, one theory states that it will continuously get worst with global warming. There is a vaccine that can help, but your best bet is to keep a clean bathroom environment. Wash your hands, everyone!

Cholera was one of the major killers of the Victorian age. When someone became sick, it was very rare that anyone would recover, and the living and sanitary conditions of the time.

Amanda Thomas did a great job with this book! I loved reading the different accounts, recipes of medicines, and views of the spread of the disease. It was a great look into the cause and effect of the disease, as well as having some of the documentation from the time.

Definitely a must-read for anyone who enjoys reading about plagues! I was not disappointed at all!

A very complete and detailed account (sometimes too detailed for my taste,) but that does not exclude anything essential to understand what it was that made this plague so dire and how it affected the Victorian era. Morbid details, scientific analysis and tragic stories in search of a cure. Who said dystopias are just fiction? Fascinating.

An absolutely remarkable depiction of a time in history where the world was both very different and very similar to our own reality nowadays. Great insight and educational information on the topic.

I was very disappointed in this book. Cholera has been an epidemic disease in various countries for many centuries. Sadly, this title only covers the cholera outbreaks in England during the late 1800's.

Cholera: The Victorian Plague, is well researched and well written; unfortunately, it is presented as a dull, dry collection of facts.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a free digital copy of this title to review from Net Galley.

#Cholera#NetGalley

Cholera is my favourite historic disease and John Snow and Joseph Bazalgette are two of my favourite historical figures. This book was ok to get some basic knowledge but not any more than that. I wanted more.

This is a fully researched book that explores and explains the plague that had the Victorian's at deaths door.
Amanda Thomas shows us the mistakes that were made, and the revolutionary changes that comes with wide spreading disease...

This book could not have come at a better time. While the world today is struggling with the Covid Pandemic and the paranoia with misinformation that seeps into our daily lives, maybe the answers for this "plague" can be found in the past...
From the book: This fascinating history of a catastrophic disease uncovers forgotten stories from each of the major cholera outbreaks in 1831-3, 1848-9, 1853-4 and 1866.
Insightful and informative, the Cholera outbreaks have much to teach us.
Thank you to NetGalley, Pen and Sword, and the author, Ms. Amanda Thomas for the opportunity to read this Advanced Readers Copy of "Cholera, The Victorian Plague". The opinions expressed in this review are mine alone.
4⭐

This is a 2020 update with slight revisions of a 2015 publication. It includes evidence that builds towards the whole and is a combination of modern analysis of the disease itself and transmission and a historical diary of the disease as the main deadly strain travelled to Britain in the early 19th century and became a persistent and serious health issue (with waves of high illness and mortality). This is backed with the response to it – medical research and analysis, linked with the developing public records on people and mortality, the political responses within the various areas and organisations and the introduction of the remedial structural measures that eventually became the norm. To make the scale of complex detail more palatable it is heavily mixed with contemporary newspaper articles from around the country showing the impact of the disease and on the people who were primarily the victims.
Thomas handles this very broad range of interlinked issues with assurance that makes absorption of what she says relatively easier. Disease – even a pandemic – does not operate in isolation with a single issue and this is something she makes clear. She explores the early research into the diseases and how that was impacted by old medical beliefs. Also to the level of credence given to individual theories, when this would often be based the “influence” of the individual researchers and often to whom they were linked. So training and patronage links are part of this discussion. Also included is the (currently topical) issue of whether indicative research undertaken in an early phase of an illness should automatically be discarded – or accepted as a part in a wider and developing dialogue.
The development of detailed public records that allowed analysis of risk and led to new strategies for disease prevention are discussed in some detail, with credit given to the researchers who were at the cutting edge of this. They were critically laying down the foundations of disease recording for management that is still used today.
Death rates too reflect background issues such as previous health, poverty and access to medical resources. The newspaper articles used make this patently clear. Never were “we all in it together”. The disease tended to progress remarkably fast, so treatment methodologies could not always be an issue at the time – but they are nevertheless discussed for the historic period when doctors were trying to urgently bring transmission under control against appalling odds.
Even without readers sitting in the midst of the current Covid pandemic this would be a very interesting read to many. It is so broad in range and issues are presented clearly in a way that can be easily understood. The subtitle “The Victorian Plague” shows how significant an issue the disease was in the 19th century and this is clearly a historical study – but as disease does not go away and social structures change little it also has a total relevance to and message for today.

There have been seven pandemics of cholera. We are in one right now. It is just not west affecting the west so we don't hear about it. I didn't know about it until I read this book. I vaguely remember hearing about people getting cholera in the U.S. from eating unwashed fruit from South America. I religiously wash everything including my hands. Cholera is called the blue death because your skin turns blue as you die. You get very cold and dehydrated due to the tremendous loss of fluid through your GI tract. The only cure is rehydration and comfort measures.
A person gets cholera because of poor sanitation and drinking contamination of the drinking water. People used to think you got it from miasma or foul air. I especially found the parts about London building the underground sewer system the best part of the book. The huge effort and the ingenuity were awe-inspiring. Three to five million people get cholera each year with between 100,000 to 200,000 deaths per year. Cholera is an ancient disease that originates from the Bay of Bengal. It is still in the 21st Century a killer. There are copious footnotes and a bibliography. I found this book to be endlessly fascinating. I am so grateful for indoor plumbing and our sewer systems. This book is not written as a dry history book but reads easily. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this interesting book in exchange for a review.

this book is a good quarantine read about previous pandemic diseases and how they start and spread, felt that the author studied and objectively gave a good presentation of cholera, I was delightfully surprised at the detail she put into her book , being a health care professional highly recommend this read ,

Thomas does a great job walking her readers through the 19th century cholera outbreaks in England. Thomas presents her readers with a well rounded picture of cholera and discusses a variety of topics related to it such as sanitation, work houses, housing, poverty and city planning. By exploring several topics at once Thomas helps keep her readers engaged with the material while not overwhelming them with information. 

What I found most interesting about this book were the parallels that could be drawn between 19th century Cholera outbreaks and the current outbreak of COVID-19. We still have a lot to learn about COVID-19 but it was easy to see how the breakthroughs 19th century doctors and scientist made have effected our 21st century response to COVID-19. This is a very timely book and readers will gain a lot of insight into history, and into their contemporary lives. 

This book is very well research, approachable and easy to follow and I'd highly recommend this book to history lovers and those interested in disease and pandemics.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pen & Sword for providing an ARC (advanced review copy) eBook in exchange for an honest review.

I will start off this review by saying that I really enjoy reading non-fiction books, especially those about medical history. So it’s of no surprise that I enjoyed this book.

It’s extremely well researched, and whilst the wording is quite scientific and complicated in parts, it’s still a really great read if medical history is your thing. It was very informative, and I felt that it was balanced in terms of the different approaches that people took towards cholera outbreaks in the Victorian era. It’s easy to look back at the situation with the knowledge and technology we have now, and scoff at how ill-informed we think they are, but the real take away for me was how hard scientists at the time were working to try and prevent the level of death that they saw.

I can’t not mention how timely this book is with regards to how easily a pandemic can spread, especially when it’s a new strain or virus, and how much panic can arise. With this being an updated edition for 2020, there are comparisons drawn with COVID-19 in the text, which I appreciated – I have been keeping informed of current developments in the news, but having a comparison to a historical pandemic has been good too. Humanity has dealt with pandemics before, and we will deal with them again.

It did take me a while to get through this book, but I think that was mostly because it’s quite a complicated topic, rather than anything else – there was only so much science I could take in one go, but I was always looking forward to picking it up again. I haven’t read any other books that focus on cholera specifically, but if I do in future, they will certainly have a lot to measure up to in this book.

Better than “The Ghost Map”

I enjoyed this book. I found it very informative, but at points there were too many details. The writing style was somewhat formal, lacking a conversational tone. However the book is better than “The Ghost Map” by Steven Johnson, which was weak on science and focused on a background figure. Another book on cholera that I read and enjoyed is “The Medical Detective: John Snow, Cholera And The Mystery Of The Broad Street Pump” by Sandra Hempel. This book had a conversational tone and it focused on a hero of mine, Dr. John Snow, the father of modern epidemiology. For this reason, this is my favorite book on cholera. However, for a general, thorough discussion, the book by Amanda J. Thomas is more than good enough.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.

3.5 stars

This book looks at cholera in England largely over the 19th century, when Asiatic cholera first arrived and became more common than the less-fatal native cholera. Much of the book focuses on the medical establishment, including studies on how cholera spread and how they treated it, and then on London's rebuilt sewage system, the cost, the pumping stations, and so forth.

I knew next to nothing about cholera in England when I started this, other than that my 2ggrandfather lived in a small town that was hit badly in 1849. So the background information was interesting and necessary. I can only imagine the fear of people living in the hard-hit areas, as they believed cholera was spread through the air when it was actually coming from the water supply--and the first doctor to prove this was still not fully believed until after his death. I read a galley on my kindle, and there are some maps and a number of pictures at the end. I found myself wanting and needing maps and diagrams (especially of the old and new sewage systems), because I don't know London well and I certainly don't know sewage engineering, so all the words describing how and where cholera spread and how the sewage was moved was just...words. Hopefully the final book will have charts and maps called out in the text for easy review--and hopefully they will be large enough to see. Over 20 % of this book was endmatter--notes (generally just citations), a bibliography, and pictures.

I did find the last two or so chapters to feel rushed and tacked on--these were about cholera today, its resistance to antibiotics, a vaccine that (with good hygiene) is very helpful, and about ongoing research on cholera and its spread. The science here was a little over my head (erspecially endemic vs epidemic).

It is impossible in 2020 to read Cholera by Amanda J Thomas and not be tempted to draw comparisons between the cholera epidemics in Britain (1831-3, 1848-9, 1853-4 and 1866) and the COVID19 Pandemic which has already infected nearly 3M people around the world. For that reason alone, this is a book worth investing the necessary time and energy it takes to read. There is much to learn about the social, economic, historical and political impacts on and responses to infectious diseases, and the author does a terrific job of making that information available in a form that is clear, engaging and appropriately sourced.

I admit near total ignorance about the ravages of cholera or the social and political landscape of 19th century England, much less the confluence of the two, so much of the information in this book was new to me. It was also fascinating.

The author draws in period accounts from people who lived through the epidemics, modern day scientific understandings, social issues including poverty, worker conditions, child welfare, sanitation, dealing with the dead, record keeping and nutrition. She even brings in Charles Dickens! Perhaps the most disturbing part of the book was the section about Droute's, a horrific social experiment (1848) in relocating poor, inner city kids to the less populated and potentially less susceptible to cholera areas of rural England. Yikes!

It's clear from reading Cholera by Amanda J Thomas that every thread of British life was changed by Cholera and the various responses to it. Many of the changes failed, a few were way off the mark and some made things worse, but some continue to play into what we know about infectious disease outbreaks today, and how we as a people go forward.

This is one of those pure history books that makes people fall in love with history. It isn't boring or academic or overwhelming. It doesn't smell like tweed and tobacco. Instead, it tells a good story that carries the reader to the final page.

If you're an armchair historian, if you're into British history, or just wondering what history has to teach us about highly infectious diseases, Cholera is a fabulous choice. It is rich with detail and personality, while staying true to the truth of history.

This review is based on an advance copy read.

I would like to thank Netgalley, Pen & Sword History, and Amanda Thomas for the opportunity to review this book. I found this book to thoroughly researched and easy to understand for at reader. I particularly enjoyed the case histories that Ms. Thomas included and the the discussion of various treatment methods used. There were quite a few though. I'm not sure I would use quite so many because it gets repetitive. I found the history of this Victorian pandemic to be eerily prophetic in regards to today's Covid-19 pandemic. It's a very eye-opening read in that even though medicine is far more advanced than what it was in the 19th century, we still have little control over the outcome. I really did enjoy this title overall. Thanks again!

First of all, this book has been very well researched and makes for accessible reading whether you know much about the cholera outbreaks or not. I knew quite a lot of the background but the depth provided certainly added to my knowledge and understanding. The book is very well written and although the science sections made sense at the time, I doubt it’ll lodge long in my science averse brain!!! I came to appreciate the spread better from the Bay of Bengal which still remains the origins of cholera and clear links were made to weather conditions which was ultimately to lead to the pandemic. Of particular interest to me in the light of Covid 19 is the failure to quarantine Sunderland as that is where the epidemic of 1832 began in Britain and from then on ‘King Cholera’ reigned for the next 30 years. The cures used were an intriguing snapshot of beliefs at the time which vary greatly from physician to physician. However, they all seemed to place great store in the efficacy of brandy!! If in doubt, prescribe that!!! King Cholera was particularly devastating to the poor although by no means exclusively. The move from country to town following industrialisation led to terrible quality housing where cholera rampaged with devastating consequences. Particularly moving were the chapters on pauper children, in particular the workhouse in Tooting which is just heartbreaking and was the inspiration for Charles Dickens Oliver Twist.

The chapters looking at the ideas on the causes of disease were also very interesting as by this time many believed in the idea of miasma or poisonous air and this belief accelerated the spread. John Snow and Dr William Budd in Bristol herald a new dawn in observational science and the growing belief in causation by an organism and I thought the sections on Snow in particular were especially interesting.

The author makes it clear that the cholera epidemics did lead to change in Britain albeit somewhat reluctantly. It led to the beginnings of investment in public health and engineering works to provide clean water, efficient drainage and so on however poor quality housing wasn’t dealt with until the following century. Because of the new legislation Britain never had another bad outbreak of cholera after 1866 as any outbreak was confined and contained. However, it still devastates regions of the world and I was shocked that it still causes over 200.000 deaths annually.

Overall, a very interesting book full of fascinating detail which shows how epidemics and pandemics can lead to change.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Pen and Sword and to the author for writing with such clarity.

Really enjoyed reading this book. Especially because we are in the middle of a panademic at the moment. It was very interesting and a powerful read. Very well written too