The Path Between the Seas

Posted on 12 December 2018 by David McCullough

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. New Download The Path Between the Seas By David McCullough For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr My uncle recommended it I had barely started it when we left on a cruise of the Panama Canal, sailing from LA This book is a detailed, non fiction account of France s selection of the canal site in Central America, the politics, diseases, intrigues, and construction of locks and Big Dig I forgot all about the cruise ship activities and buried myself in this book It awoke the inner engineer in me that I didn t know I had I read it desperately night and day, hoping to finish before reachi My uncle recommended it I had barely started it when we left on a cruise of the Panama Canal, sailing from LA This book is a detailed, non fiction account of France s selection of the cana...Something very strange happens about 30% through Path Between the Seas For the first 1 3 of the book, the reader must trudge through pedantic descriptions of very trivial matters and a hodgepodge of boring discussions on all things nautical Then, all of a sudden McCullough does something amazing he reminds you that people everyday ordinary people really cared about the Panama Canal, what it could do and what it would mean And when it nearly failed, even though we are talking about peop...My whole life is a lie My favorite palindrome is BOGUS I mean, sure, it s still a palindrome, but it s just not true A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL, PANAMA A M A N A P L A N A C A N A L P A N A M AThere wasn t a man, there wasn t even a plan There were like, a dozen men, all with various plans It was almost built in Nicaragua The one guy with a decent plan from the beginning was ignored and his plan sat unnoticed in a file somewhere, while the rest of them ran around, killing thousands of worke My whole life is a lie My favorite palindrome is BOGUS I mean, sure, it s still a palindrome, but it s just not true A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL, PANAMA A M A N A P L A N A C A N A L P A N A M AThere wasn t a man, there wasn t even a plan There were like, a dozen men, all with various plans It was almost built in Nicaragua The one guy with a decent plan from the beginning was ignored and his plan sat unnoticed in a file somewhere, while the rest of them ran around, killing thousands of workers and then shrugging and going back to the drawing board when that didn t work The French started it, failed terribly, lost thousands of men and women to malaria and yellow fever, and then went bankrupt Teddy Roosevelt, in classic Teddy Roosevelt style, went after it but couldn t decide and frankly didn t care where to build or how, he just wanted a canal built, and some of the glory if not al...CONSUMMATELY BORING AND YET The United States had a mandate from civilization to build the canal, he Theodore Roosevelt told Congress on January 4, 1904 page 387Reading very much like an eighth grade textbook pedantically packed with a densely detailed, confusing, and virtually meaningless litany of facts, figures, names and dates especially the first two thirds of David McCullough s behemoth, THE PATH BETWEEN THE SEAS The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870 1914 presents a serious chal CONSUMMATELY BORING AND YET The United States had a mandate from civilization to build the canal, he Theodore Roosevelt told Congress on January 4, 1904 page 387Reading very much like an eighth grade textbook pedantically packed with a densely detailed, confusing, and virtually meaningless litany of facts, figures, names and dates especially the first two thirds of David McCullough s behemoth, THE PATH BETWEEN THE SEAS The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870 1914 presents a serious challenge to slogging on It s not until page 411, Book Three, The Builders 1904 1914, that the story begins to get really interesting when, with rough riding Teddy R leading the charge, the Americans sashay to the rescue And then it becomes an engaging tale of the epic struggle of man, mind, might, and machine against nature, climate, topography and disease We know who the eventual winners were Recommendation 1 Forget everything I ve written here 2 remember that this is David Mc...This is a tough book to rate If you are a history nerd like myself then this book probably deserves the 4 stars that I have given it However, if you are anormal person and reader then this book would probably get three, maybe even two stars, because it can easily be mind numbingly boring The reason for this difference of opinion is almost certainly the length and the depth of detail The book is 617 pages of text and I have to admit that 150 200 pages could probably have been chopped to This is a tough book to rate If you are a history nerd like myself then this book probably deserves the 4 stars that I have given it However, if you are anormal person and rea...You wouldn t think that a book detailing the creation of the Panama Canal would be an exciting and quick read Well, you d be wrong I love David McCullough, I think he is flat out the best biographer out there as well as being one hell of a history author 1776 is my favorite book about the American revolution The Path Between the Seas had me so interested in geology, Central American politics, jungle wildlife, topography, stuff that I would never have thought I would be interested in It s no You wouldn t think that a book detailing the creation of the Panama Canal would be an exciting and quick read Well, you d be wrong I love David McCullough, I think he is flat out the best biographer out there as well as being one hell of a history author 1776 is my favorite book about the American revolution The Path Between the Seas had me so interested in geology, Central American politics, jungle wildlife, topography, stuff that I would never have thought I ...This book tells the complete story of the building of the Panama Canal, beginning with the French efforts from 1870 to about 1889, and then continuing with the U.S completion from 1902 to 1914 I found the parts describing the actual building of the canal by both the French and the U.S to be the most interesting parts of the book I was much less interested in the political machinations dealing with the U.S Columbia negotiations and the U.S assistance in the creation of the Republic of P This book tells the complete story of the building of the Panama Canal, beginning with the French efforts from 1870 to about 1889, and then continuing with the U.S completion from 1902 to 1914 I found the parts describing the actual building of the canal by both the French and the U.S to be the most interesting parts of the book I was much less interested in the political machinations dealing with the U.S Columbia negotiations and the U.S assistance in the creation of the Republic of Panama.The devastation of men by Yellow Fever and Malaria, particularly during the entire French efforts, was absolutely incredible and heart breaking as well Early U.S failure to obliterate these diseases using treatments by Dr Gorgus that were nearly guaranteed to work and eventually did was frustrating.For me the most interesting part of the book was the description of the construction methods used in the completion o...I wasn t sure whether to award 4 or 5 stars to this book until I realized that my withholding a star hadto do with me than the book In his typically lucid prose, McCullough wrote a complete history of the building of the Canal The research was impeccable the book deserves all the accolades it received From the disastrous French attempt at building it to the American struggles and finally success, the reader is given the full story The egos involved always meant that there would be con I wasn t sure whether to award 4 or 5 stars to this book until I realized that my withholding a star hadto do with me ...It takes a lot of slogging through statistics to read this book, which is what you expect from David McCollough At times the story gets mired in a lot of detail that I ll never remember However, I did enjoy the book and what I learned that I think I ll keep My biggest criticism is the lack of maps What I learned 1 The French were the first to attempt a canal across the isthmus in Central America This was due to the unflagging zeal of Ferdinand de Lesseps, who was instrumental in the buildi It takes a lot of slogging through statistics to read this book, which is what you expect from David McCollough At times the story gets mired in a lot of detail that I ll never remember However, I did enjoy the book and what I learned that I think I ll keep My biggest criticism is the lack of maps What I learned 1 The French were the first to attemp...Probably no one writescomplete and exhaustive histories than David McCullough In The Path Between the Seas, one of his earlier works 1977 , McCullough guides you through the political, financial, and engineering intricacies of building the Panama Canal, a modern wonder of the world It s a fascinating read, especially if you enjoy history, politics and geography The opening of the canal and control allowed the United States to maintain a two ocean navy, and provide security fo Probably no one writescomplete and exhaustive histories than David McCullough In The Path Between the Seas, one of his earlier works 1977 , McCullough guides you through the political, financial, and engineering intricacies of building the Panama Canal, a modern wonder of the world It s a fascinating read, especially if you enjoy history, politics and geography The opening of the canal and control allowed the United States to maintain a two ocean navy, and provide security for some of t...

English
12 December 2018

David McCullough