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Comment on The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 Reviews by Mike Powers "mkp51"

Mike Powers "mkp51" — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:26:45 +0000

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

A brilliant history of the Panama Canal, February 29, 2000

Mike Powers "mkp51" (Woolwich, ME USA) -

This review is from: The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 (Paperback)

"The Path Between the Seas" is narrative history at its best - the story of perhaps the greatest engineering feat of modern times. Writing in the clear and lucid style for which he is noted, historian David McCullough traces the creation of the Panama Canal from its earliest inception by the French in 1870, to its completion 44 years later by the United States.

McCullough skillfully weaves personalities and events together to create a powerful narrative replete with political intrigue, financial scandal, and triumph over tremendous adversity. The author first acquaints the reader with the leaders of the French attempt to build the canal - Ferdinand de Lesseps and his son, Charles, and Phillippe Bunau-Varilla, among others - and tells of the ultimate failure of their venture, and their disgrace due to financial scandal. McCullough then chronicles the ultimately successful American attempt to build the canal. Here is seen the political intrigue (the U.S. backed Panamanian revolution against Colombia, with the complicity of President Theodore Roosevelt, Secretary of State John Hay, and Bunau-Varilla); the successful war against yellow fever and malaria, led by American doctor William Gorgas; and the organizational and engineering genius of two American Chief Engineers - John Stevens and Colonel George Goethals - which led to the completion of the canal in 1914.

"The Path Between the Seas" is more than just the story of how the Panama Canal was built; it is a well researched, historically accurate, and at the same time lively and highly entertaining account of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Highly recommended!

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Comment on The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 Reviews by Wayne A. Smith

Wayne A. Smith — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:22:04 +0000

66 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

A Very Good Tale, July 11, 2000

Wayne A. Smith (Wilmington, DE) -

This review is from: The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 (Paperback)

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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Comment on The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 Reviews by Brian D. Rubendall

Brian D. Rubendall — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:01:43 +0000

82 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

History writing at its best, May 11, 2000

Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) -

This review is from: The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 (Paperback)

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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Comment on National Geographic Traveler: Panama, 2nd edition by Caroline Hanson

Caroline Hanson — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:20:59 +0000

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Beautiful but lacking substance, April 25, 2011

Caroline Hanson (NEW YORK, NY, US) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: National Geographic Traveler: Panama, 2nd edition (Paperback)

This book is a just as pretty on the inside as it is on the cover, with thick glossy paper, colorful photos and an interesting layout. Unfortunately it's a little glossy in it's content too. If you want an overview of the main points of interest in Panama, or are looking for a book to convince that special someone that Panama's worth a trip, this is the perfect book for you. If you're looking for nitty-gritty, detailed insight on almost anything you might want to know to actually travel around this country, take a look at Moon Panama.

Warning: The font is very small and hard to read; if I didn't have young eyes I'm not sure I could have managed it.

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Comment on Surf’s Up: The Girl’s Guide to Surfing by Linda Linguvic

Linda Linguvic — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 05:59:05 +0000

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

Story of surfers who risk their lives for their obsession, February 19, 2005

Linda Linguvic (New York City) -

This review is from: Riding Giants (Special Edition) (DVD)

Here in New York City I'm surrounded by tall buildings and a cold and snowy winter. It's a perfect time for a surfing film and Riding Giants, the 2004 entry into list the ever-growing documentaries about the sport, is one of the best. By now I take the spectacular cinematography that is possible today for granted. But I just cannot get enough of the real-life stories of the surfers who risk their lives for their obsession.

For example, there is Jeff Clark. For fifteen years he surfed all by himself in frigid water off the rocky coast of California just north of San Francisco. When other surfers finally discovered these waves, the best of them rushed there with photographers at the ready. The cameras were running when a well know and experienced surfer, Mark Foo, drowned. And then there is Laird Hamilton. He's enjoying his fame and fortune now. But we first meet him in the late sixties, a little boy of 4 years old, who loved to body surf. One of the surfers took an interest in the little boy, and wound up marrying his single mother. Little Laird grew up in the world of surfing and has recently made a fortune when he developed a business for jet skis and a towing boats Formerly, it would take hours for a surfer to get out to the big waves. But now this is done in a matter of minutes and it's changed the sport entirely.

The film is a documentary about surfing from the 1950s on. I've seen other films on this subject but it seems there is always new and fresh material. This time it is includes some vintage home movies about group of young men who defined convention, and went off to live on the beach and do nothing but surf all day. We watch them surfing and playfully living their free and fun life. Many of them are still alive with happy memories of that time. And some of them continued to surf, becoming legends in the sport.

In addition the great cinematography, there are also drawings. In one section of the film the surfers talk about what it feels like to be buried under a mountain of waves. Naturally there are no photos to illustrate this. But the drawings really gave me a feeling of what it must be like.

This is a fine film. I loved every minute of it. But, I honestly had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I watched these surfers having so much pleasure in the surf when I thought about the recent tsunami tragedy. In spite of this, I still cannot help but recommend this film.

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