The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 | 
 enlarge | Author: David Mccullough
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
Buy Used: $2.49
You Save: $15.51 (86%)
New (55) Used (146) Collectible (13) from $2.49
Rating:  124 reviews
Sales Rank: 11451
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 704
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6 x 1.6
ISBN: 0671244094
Dewey Decimal Number: 972.87504
EAN: 9780671244095
ASIN: 0671244094
Publication Date: October 15, 1978
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
On December 31, 1999, after nearly a century of rule, the United States officially ceded ownership of the Panama Canal to the nation of Panama. That nation did not exist when, in the mid-19th century, Europeans first began to explore the possibilities of creating a link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the narrow but mountainous isthmus; Panama was then a remote and overlooked part of Colombia. All that changed, writes David McCullough in his magisterial history of the Canal, in 1848, when prospectors struck gold in California. A wave of fortune seekers descended on Panama from Europe and the eastern United States, seeking quick passage on California-bound ships in the Pacific, and the Panama Railroad, built to serve that traffic, was soon the highest-priced stock listed on the New York Exchange. To build a 51-mile-long ship canal to replace that railroad seemed an easy matter to some investors. But, as McCullough notes, the construction project came to involve the efforts of thousands of workers from many nations over four decades; eventually those workers, laboring in oppressive heat in a vast malarial swamp, removed enough soil and rock to build a pyramid a mile high. In the early years, they toiled under the direction of French entrepreneur Ferdinand de Lesseps, who went bankrupt while pursuing his dream of extending France's empire in the Americas. The United States then entered the picture, with President Theodore Roosevelt orchestrating the purchase of the canal--but not before helping foment a revolution that removed Panama from Colombian rule and placed it squarely in the American camp. The story of the Panama Canal is complex, full of heroes, villains, and victims. McCullough's long, richly detailed, and eminently literate book pays homage to an immense undertaking. --Gregory McNamee
Product Description
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.
Download Description
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.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 119 more reviews...
 The Path Between the Seas August 6, 2008
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.
History at its best! August 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
Fascinating Book July 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
How did they do this?? July 20, 2008
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.
Book Purchase April 23, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
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
|
|
|
