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

McCullough is just one of those writers who can write about nearly anything and make it interesting. "The Path Between the Seas" is no exception. I didn't really have an interest in the Panama Canal when I bought the book, but I like his work and I thought I would give it a chance. I'm glad I did because it really reads fast and is full of excitement and drama. The books starts out with the failure of the French attempt to build the Canal and then moves into the American period and the successful completion of the Canal in 1914. All the while you read about the scandals, the dangers, the diseases, the tragedies and the triumphs. The book takes you from medicine to politics to revolution and science. Just realize that this is a history book and not an engineering one! There is not a lot of technical detail here, although the last chapter explains quite thoroughly how the locks were assembled. Rather it is the human side of the story. Also, it is the human aspect of the building of the canal, and not an exploration of life in the canal zone, although there is a chapter on that towards the end. It would have been nice to include more first-hand experiences of the average man there (though he says this is just not possible when it comes to the black workers); the book still absorbs the reader in the daily travails of building the canal.The Panama Canal was an important accomplishment in American history and a forgotten one. I would highly recommend reading this book. You will not be disappointed!

I read this book as a follow up to a cruise which included a day travelling the length of the Panama Canal. The author succeeds in giving an enthralling account of the fulfilment of the dream to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans with a short route for ships. He covers the individuals, finances, challenges both geographical and medical, the triumphs and failures which led to the historic completion of this feat of engineering.

This is a magnificent story. The length may seem daunting. But for me, McCullough's writing and the amazing details of building the canal actually made this a much quicker read than I had anticipated. You may find yourself, as I did, asking friends, "Do you have any idea how many people worked on building the Panama canal and how many of those workers died?" or "How much concrete do you think was used to build the Panama canal?" You may be saying to yourself, I doubt very much that I would ever be asking those questions. Especially of people with whom I wish to remain friends. But when you learn the true magnitude of the canal's construction, you may very well find yourself wanting to share these details and this book with others.Full disclosure, I am a fan of David McCullough's writing going back to "Brave Companions" and "The Johnstown Flood." But this may be his best.The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal: 1870-1914

This book is a heady mix of contemporary history, geography, technology and mind blowing biography.The fact that the canal had such illustrious preceding history (Suez), spanning not just continents and competing foreign policy, but also similar gargantuan human endeavour, it becomes incumbent upon the author to walk the reader through a lot of Suez history as well. This affords the reader a very useful context, which helps is deeply appreciating the scale of the endeavour that was Panama Canal.One constantly finds oneself opening up the map, to be reminded of the geographical layout, which is key to the entire plot. This, in itself, is highly educational. For example - it may remind you that the thin sliver of land connecting the continents of North America and South America is home to so many countries. Where you might have previously gone, ‘ah - Mexico’ - you will now know that it has - Gautemala, Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and, of course, the protagonists, Nicaragua and Panama.Should someone come from that Project Management background, or be interested in that field, this book is such a delight (for the things done well) and annoyance, all at the same time. For example, there can be no better illustration of outlandish optimism bias, than what was on display when the French mounted their audacious attempt to build the canal.Diseases (specially Yellow Fever) were one of the constant challenges faced by the project. The reader comes face to face with the reality of what Yellow Fever meant during those days. There were no other options, other than getting a grip on, and taming this ravaging malady, if the canal was ever to come to fruition. The approach of the medical fraternity, the painstaking analysis of the problem, leading to smart prevention approach, is something for which alone this book could be read, even if you don't care for the canal. To read this book, while living through the pandemic of COVID, made the whole experience alive and vivid.While reading the book, and learning about the challenges that were faced in various stages before and during the build - one cannot but admire the ingenious solutions that were devised by the smart people working on the project; while, at the same time thinking of how the modern technology would have made a short work of it.The author does a superb job of describing the personalities and the favourable (and detrimental) traits they brought on to the roles they played in the building of the canal.CONSI do think that the author, was not able to weed out a lot of material (which he could have done easily), in order to keep the story a tad more linear. Having said that, the reader is left in supreme awe of the scale of research that must have been carried out, in order to write this book.