The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914

The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 | David McCullough | Fascinating Book

books:

The Path Between t...

	The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 David McCullough Simon & Schuster, 1978 - 704 pages average customer review:based on 124 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Truman, here is the national bestselling epic chronicle of the creation of the Panama Canal. In The Path Between the Seas, acclaimed historian David McCullough delivers a first-rate drama of the sweeping human undertaking that led to the creation of this grand enterprise.

The Path Between the Seas tells the story of the men and women who fought against all odds to fulfill the 400-year-old dream of constructing an aquatic passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is a story of astonishing engineering feats, tremendous medical accomplishments, political power plays, heroic successes, and tragic failures. Applying his remarkable gift for writing lucid, lively exposition, McCullough weaves the many strands of the momentous event into a comprehensive and captivating tale.

Winner of the National Book Award for history, the Francis Parkman Prize, the Samuel Eliot Morison Award, and the Cornelius Ryan Award (for the best book of the year on international affairs), The Path Between the Seas is a must-read for anyone interested in American history, the history of technology, international intrigue, and human drama.

for more information click here

History at its best!

This is a great book! Long (more than 650 pages) and printed in small font size. However, it is so full of interesting information (told in good and entertaining prose), documented facts, and historic photographs, that it is real pleasure to read. It covers more than 40 years of history of one of the greatest construction projects ever: the Panama Canal. From the failed efforts of the Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps to the completion of the canal by the Americans, David McCullough masterly describes with exquisite detail the intricacies of financial schemes, international politics and obscure legal maneuvers that made possible the construction of the waterway between the oceans. There is also plenty of human drama, tales of success and failure, survival and death, pride and shame. Particularly interesting to me where the sections detailing the development of measures to control mosquito-born diseases that decimated workers and engineers and their families. This accomplishment not only advanced science, but made possible the continuation and completion of the work. The final chapters provide many particulars about the dimensions and operation of the locks allowing the reader to understand and admire the amazing nature of this gigantic undertaking. McCullough displays in his book both the talent of a novelist and the precision of a historian.

for more information click here

Fascinating Book

I am booked on a Panama canal cruise in December 2008. Someone recommended this book to me. At 600 pages, I was a little intimidated by it! Not being really mechanically minded, I was afraid it would be dry and dull. Not in the least. In the first 50 pages I learned more about the Panama canal than I thought possible. I loved this book! So much intriguing information about how it came to be, how many people were involved in it, the huge amount of money invested in it, and on and on, thousands of facts written in a very readable, interesting fashion. Truly a marvel of engineering, this book will make the Panama canal one of the most interesting things you've ever learned about.

for more information click here

Book Purchase

Seller described the used book that I received perfectly. Shipment was expedited. All aspects of the purchase were excellent, just as the seller promised. Thank you

How did they do this??

In November of 1971 I was ordered to Fort Sherman, Canal Zone for jungle operations training. In the two weeks that I was there I learned many things among which are the following:
1. The Jungle is the King.
2. Don't mess with the Jungle.
3. There are mosquitoes in the Jungle and they'll make your life miserable and even give you malaria.
4. Don't ever get mad at the Jungle. The madder you get the worse off you will be.
In 1977 I read Mr. McCullough's book about the creation of the Panama Canal. His chronicle on the building of this path between the seas is truly epic. He tells of the failures of Ferdinand de Lesseps in trying to build a sea level canal. He describes T R Roosevelt's desire to build this connect between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Mr. McCullough goes into great depth about the Army Corps of Engineers in the building of the Canal, His take on the excavation of the Culebra Cut is amazing. Personally being on the ground about 60 years later , I consider it a modern day engineering miracle. The density of the jungle and the incredible tropical heat was a large deterrent to any building progress. However in the end it was accomplished.
Kudos to the U.S.A.. This was their finest hour!! I don't think Mr. Churchill ever realized the magnitude of this accomplishment.

for more information click here

The Path Between the Seas

For a non-student of history, this is a very good read. It's a real shocker that the Panama Canal was ever built after the financial & physical tradgedies that occured.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

products you might be interested in

recommendations

The best books on the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
Panama: Recommended Reading
Invention and Ingenuity
2008 Reading List
2006