| |  | Books : Path Between The Seas : The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 |  | | | | | | | | | |
Binding: Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 704
Publication Date: October 15, 1978
Sales Rank: 217993
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
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.
Amazon.com Review:
On December 31, 1999, after nearly a century of rule, theUnited States officially ceded ownership of the Panama Canal to the nation ofPanama. That nation did not exist when, in the mid-19th century,Europeans first began to explore the possibilities of creating a linkbetween the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the narrow butmountainous isthmus; Panama was then a remote and overlooked part ofColombia.
All that changed, writes DavidMcCullough in his magisterial history of the Canal, in 1848, whenprospectors struck gold in California. A wave of fortune seekersdescended on Panama from Europe and the eastern United States, seekingquick passage on California-bound ships in the Pacific, and the PanamaRailroad, built to serve that traffic, was soon the highest-pricedstock listed on the New York Exchange. To build a 51-mile-long shipcanal to replace that railroad seemed an easy matter to someinvestors. But, as McCullough notes, the construction project came toinvolve the efforts of thousands of workers from many nations overfour decades; eventually those workers, laboring in oppressive heat ina vast malarial swamp, removed enough soil and rock to build a pyramida mile high. In the early years, they toiled under the direction ofFrench entrepreneur Ferdinand de Lesseps, who went bankrupt whilepursuing his dream of extending France's empire in the Americas. TheUnited States then entered the picture, with President TheodoreRoosevelt orchestrating the purchase of the canal--but not beforehelping foment a revolution that removed Panama from Colombian ruleand 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 eminentlyliterate book pays homage to an immense undertaking. --GregoryMcNamee
Customer Reviews Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Audacious and improbable (4.25*s)
This book is a highly informative account of the entire history of the contemplation and building of the Panama Canal involving many nations across several decades. The difficulties facing any entity, private or public, considering building an Isthmus-crossing canal were unbelievable: the sheer complexity of the canal design; the volume of earth to move and the size of the structures to build; the huge and multi-dimensional labor force; the tremendous earth-moving machinery required and its effective ... Read More
Rating:  - Boring
Very factual but exteeeeeeeeemly boring and wordy.I read it before going through the cannal and it helped me greatly to enjoy the trip, but it could be 1/4 the size and still do the job.
Rating:  - A man, a plan, a canal . . .
The epitome of what a general narrative history should be-informative, fun, inspiring.
McCullough begins by tracing the idea of an isthmian canal in history, continues with the two abortive French efforts to complete the canal, and finally covers the completion of the canal in its political and technical aspects under the leadership of the United States.
The technical aspects are fascinating for their details and bridging of a fifty year period of incredible engineering progress, ... Read More
Rating: - Lighting a path thru history
This Pulitzer-prize winning book tells of the creation of the Panama Canal, and in doing so, gives a great introduction to the American century.The book is written in third person, and follows the who, what, when, where and how of this great undertaking.The who includes engineers, politicians, business leaders, and common laborers who manned the machines that dug the canal.The what includes detailed descriptions of the work that went into making the canal, with a good recall of the businesses involved ... Read More
Rating: - A great story
David McCullough provides a fascinating description of the trials and tribulations that led to the creation of the Panama Canal, covering the diverse characters, geography, science and politics in great story telling form.
Path Between The Seas : The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 | | | |
| | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | 
2004-2007 Copyright © , All right reserved.
the website powered by web hosting. |
|
|
