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Summary: Vivid historical portraits and a great story.
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. McCullough does an excellent job of telling a story. The early part of the book dealing with the French experience is excellent. Reading this section I felt like I was there. The middle portion of the book dealing with the political wrangling and intrigue in Washington got a little tedious for me. How malaria and yellow fever were virtually eradicated is a tale worth noting. The final portion of the book describing the actual building of the canal is terrific. The canal was truly an engineering marvel of its day. Both the French and American efforts were truly heroic. If you want a good read and a great story to boot this book is it.
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Summary: The Classic History of how The Panama Canal Came Into Being.
Review: I first read a borrowed copy of this this book some fifteen years ago and bought a copy for myself (since re-read, at least in part, several times)some six years ago when based for a time in Panama City, having then embarked on writing my own first book, a thriller titled "The Panama Affair". As a valuable research tool, a damn good read, and a fascinating history of how this project to breech the tropical disease infested jungle, and cut a hole through a small mountain range with early twentieth century technology came into being - along with a new nation; and the politcal machinations and deviousness that lay behind its creation, McCullouch's masterpiece has no equal.
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Summary: And to think we gave it back to Panama after all that
Review: What a tale of adventure, intrigue and danger. Engrossing in not just the global implications of actually building the canal and what it meant for the world but the fate of all who were connected to it. The story includes the French connection, the fight against Malaria and medical breakthroughs, scores of deaths from sickness, injury and mudslides, political and financial scandals and a true engineering marvel. David McCullough has done it again. Along with The Great Bridge, this is one of his best works.
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Summary: The History of a Dream
Review: The Panama Canal started as the dream of the Frenchman who oversaw the creation of the Suez canal, and he over-optimistically belived that the Panama Canal would be an easier job and that technical geniuses would (almost) magically solve whatever problems arose. As is usual in a major project, the canal was completed neither on time nor in budget. The 10-foot-per-year rainfall made the terrain a quagmire that instantly rusted the machinery, and the native diseases caused tragic losses among the families of the management and workers alike. A massive river blocked the way and a mountain had to be moved on the way to the other shore. The overall configuration of the canal was undecided till the project was significantly underway. Partway through, the project suffered a loss of public support and was abandoned, only to be taken over by Americans who arrogantly thought that their confidence and knowledge would make the job easy. This whole adventure was a project management nightmare and an epic tale of courage, personal strength and hubris. I wish my history classes in school had provided this kind of detail about the mistakes and triumphs that finally makes a great vision come true.
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Summary: Incredible story
Review: When I picked up this book from a stack of my wife's I was interested in neither the setting nor the subject. But from the first chapter, I was unable to put it down. Well researched and written, it told a fascinating story.
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Summary: A Most Profound WorK!!
Review: I found Mr. McCullough's book about the building of the Panama Canal to be well written, extra-well researched, and highly entertaining! I would recommend this book to anyone who truly wants to know what it took to build such an engineering marvel. Having lived in Panama twice and visited on many occasions, I can attest to the fact Mr. McCullough's book is THE SOURCE for accurate information on the canal and it's builders (both French and American efforts). I would also recommend purchasing the NOVA video, which Mr. McCullough narrates, called "A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama". He even quotes out of his own book on screen! I've never read a book so intricately and fastidiously researched. MUST READING for the true Canal enthusiast.
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Summary: A Very Good Tale
Review: David McCollough is a heck of a writer -- a fact I already knew from reading his wonderful biography Truman. His skill does justice to an epic story of recent times: the building of the Panama Canal. This big book is necessary to tell a big tale. The effort to build the Path Between the Seas across the isthmus of Panama lasted from the 1870's through 1914. In a nutshell, first the French tried and failed to build a sea level crossing at Panama. This was in pursuit of a vision held by many national leaders in order to cut thousands of miles from the journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. The Americans picked up where the French left off, and after a decade succeeded in creating a crossing using locks and a man-made lake. What McCollough does so well is flesh out the above nutshell. It is a tale that would not be believed if written as fiction. The level of incompetence, misfeasance and malfeasance, wondrously peculiar personalities, engineering failures and brilliance, vision and size astound the reader and underscore how that age relied more upon enthusiasm, idealism and optimism in the pursuit of grand efforts than does our careful and measured era. The French followed the builder of the Suez Canal into the jungles of Panama. Tens of thousands of French families invested their life savings in the stock of a company that had no plans for the actual canal, very little good data of conditions on the isthmus, no idea of the amount of earth required to be removed, and no budget that would pay for the grand adventure. After spending the 1870's and 1880's mired in the jungle, losing tens of thousands (mostly black Caribbean workers -- the people who really built the canal) to disease and accident, raising increasingly more expensive capital in desperate gambles to stay afloat, the French effort collapsed. Shame, ignominy and jail awaited some of the project leaders. Their effort will amaze the reader -- that such an ill-conceived (that's too much of a compliment it wasn't even conceived at all beyond "we'll dig it -- viva la France!") undertaking could consume much of the savings of middle class France reminds one of how susceptible people can be to charlatans and swindlers. Into the breach stepped Teddy Roosevelt. This story once again displays the Presidents immense force of personality, drive and integrity. Evidence strongly suggests he made a revolution in Panama to win that then Colombian province away from a country that could not come to terms with the United States on acquiring the rights to dig the canal. He then ensured, through the use of highly skilled and able administrators, that the organization, logistics, financing and authority existed to make what for years stood as the world's largest construction effort. Great credit for the actual building goes to several engineers and their staff -- many US Army engineers. The success also greatly rested on Col. Gorgas and his partially successful efforts to battle disease: yellow fever, malaria and a host of others that had cost upwards of 200 of every thousand the French employed a generation earlier. McCollough brings scores of fascinating personalities to light. He tells of the financial and great political battles that attended all of the stages of the canal effort. The engineering and workings of the canal are simply and clearly laid out. The important efforts to improve sanitation and fight the mosquito borne diseases are succinctly explained. All of these elements are rendered interesting and tightly woven in this very good book.
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Summary: Path Between The Seas - A Journey Worth Taking
Review: The Panama Canal is probably one of the most overlooked achievements of the last century. David McCullough who you may know as the host of the series "The American Experience" tells us of the toils and troubles of the men who built this masterpiece of Engineering. McCullough's style is entertaining and imformative and makes one wish that he would write a book on everything. This book will make you see things in a brand new way. Also check out "Truman" by McCullough as it is equally intriguing and informative.
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Summary: History writing at its best
Review: David McCullough makes the epic story of the building of the Panama Canal come to life in a way that few authors could. Throughout the long history of tranportation across the Central American isthmus (first railroad, then canal) McCollough focusses on fascinating characters like the brilliant but enigmatic Frechman Ferdinand de Lesseps, who built the Suez Canal but whose career crashed and burned in Panama. McCullough's skill as a storyteller simply cannot be understated. The book will leave you with a true appreciation of just how Herculean an undertaking the canal was. This book is simply one of the best works of history to appear in the last quarter century.
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Summary: Wonderful Insight into an Amazing Feat
Review: This is another outstanding work by David McCullough. His excellent research and easy to understand narrative put you right there in the canal with first the French and later the Americans. McCullough takes you through the political and enginering twists and turns that made the Panama Canal possible. You'll travel to Paris, Washington, Bogota and Panama to meet the people involved and take part in their conversations and planning. This is a must reading for anyone interested in construction and history.
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