The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914
The National Book Award–winning epic chronicle of the creation of the Panama Canal, a first-rate drama of the bold and brilliant engineering feat that transformed global trade routes and shaped modern American history, as told by Pulitzer Prize–winning author and master historian David McCullough.
A national bestseller and testament to human determination, The Path Between the Seas tells the stories of the men and women who fought against all odds to fulfill the 400-year-old dream of constructing a maritime passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. McCullough masterfully recounts astonishing engineering and 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, technological innovation, international intrigue, and human drama.
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Review
Another book I just kinda randomly read.
I've been searching for good history audiobooks and David McCullough's name keeps reappearing as the top recommended writer. Now I understand the hype. He is clearly one of the best modern history writers. Which of course makes his books the best audiobooks too - even though I have only read one so far. The level of detail in this book is spectacular and it's not just details about Americans but also about French people and various other countries. Then there are details about construction, bickering, geopolitics, personal events and most impressively he uses letters and newspaper articles to illustrate points by using real voices. The personal writing is what makes it all personal and realistic. Often when I read ancient anthology it all feels vague and hazy and I forget the book after a week. Here the history is from a letter writing period so there is a ton of great info on even small events.
I'm very impressed and will read the rest of his books.
This book is about the Panama canal and it starts out with the huge failure that was the initial French excavation. The French arrogance and Colombian greed of how expensive they wanted to make it for France, and later USA, made the project feel like a failure from the start. The economic cost of a huge construction project, a unexplored process and greedy governments made this seem like a project bound to fail. The French project is by far the most interesting and exciting part of the book. And the excitement about the final failure made this part of the book extremely engaging. I'm a bit letdown by how little he told us about the final failure itself. He was constantly talking about the cost and the huge investments by private French citizens but when it all ended we never quite understood who lost what kind of money. It just felt like someone got cheated but it wasn't clear who. No one seemed to be imprisoned, no one seemed to lose all his money or prestige. It's kinda a project that came and went and who paid for the biggest failure of all time is never quite clear.
The American project gets a bit detailed at times. When McCullough gets into the technical aspects of the dam locks it gets to be a really hard audiobook to listen to. It's all super interesting but there are quite a few passages that get complicated especially because the English used is intellectual English very fit for a historical book but also making some passages a bit more complicated.
It's still a great book and one that I even could be read again at some point because it's that detailed. The fact that it focuses on a project that has a start and finish also makes it focused and engaging as a history book. It's not just boring historical info as many The Great Courses lectures tend to be. This is a book that you can easily make a great TV show from. The PBS documentary on it is also amazing and informative. I'll for sure rewatch it now. And that's the negative part of the book. The technical details get a bit technical and difficult to understand. In the documentary everything is just shown on screen so you understand 100% of it. And the technical stuff is explained with clear visual illustrations. Unfortunately that's the issue with engineering and biology books. It's the worst medium for conveying this kind of info. Still, most of the book is about the history itself. Another thing is the characters. I kinda just ignored some of them as there are so many and it's not visual. It's hard to just remember names.
Conclusion
Very impressive book in the scope and level of info. It doesn't feel like the most relevant history book out there but it's a big project and a good book about it so combined these 2 factors make it stand out as a history book.
It's not a book that changed my mind on anything or taught me great important things I didn't know already. But it does present a new side of history I didn't know much about and it's for sure very engaging and fun. It's not a must-read book in the history genre unless you want to read a lot of history. But it is way more entertaining than most stuff you will read, history or otherwise.
Another book I just kinda randomly read.
I've been searching for good history audiobooks and David McCullough's name keeps reappearing as the top recommended writer. Now I understand the hype. He is clearly one of the best modern history writers. Which of course makes his books the best audiobooks too - even though I have only read one so far. The level of detail in this book is spectacular and it's not just details about Americans but also about French people and various other countries. Then there are details about construction, bickering, geopolitics, personal events and most impressively he uses letters and newspaper articles to illustrate points by using real voices. The personal writing is what makes it all personal and realistic. Often when I read ancient anthology it all feels vague and hazy and I forget the book after a week. Here the history is from a letter writing period so there is a ton of great info on even small events.
I'm very impressed and will read the rest of his books.
This book is about the Panama canal and it starts out with the huge failure that was the initial French excavation. The French arrogance and Colombian greed of how expensive they wanted to make it for France, and later USA, made the project feel like a failure from the start. The economic cost of a huge construction project, a unexplored process and greedy governments made this seem like a project bound to fail. The French project is by far the most interesting and exciting part of the book. And the excitement about the final failure made this part of the book extremely engaging. I'm a bit letdown by how little he told us about the final failure itself. He was constantly talking about the cost and the huge investments by private French citizens but when it all ended we never quite understood who lost what kind of money. It just felt like someone got cheated but it wasn't clear who. No one seemed to be imprisoned, no one seemed to lose all his money or prestige. It's kinda a project that came and went and who paid for the biggest failure of all time is never quite clear.
The American project gets a bit detailed at times. When McCullough gets into the technical aspects of the dam locks it gets to be a really hard audiobook to listen to. It's all super interesting but there are quite a few passages that get complicated especially because the English used is intellectual English very fit for a historical book but also making some passages a bit more complicated.
It's still a great book and one that I even could be read again at some point because it's that detailed. The fact that it focuses on a project that has a start and finish also makes it focused and engaging as a history book. It's not just boring historical info as many The Great Courses lectures tend to be. This is a book that you can easily make a great TV show from. The PBS documentary on it is also amazing and informative. I'll for sure rewatch it now. And that's the negative part of the book. The technical details get a bit technical and difficult to understand. In the documentary everything is just shown on screen so you understand 100% of it. And the technical stuff is explained with clear visual illustrations. Unfortunately that's the issue with engineering and biology books. It's the worst medium for conveying this kind of info. Still, most of the book is about the history itself. Another thing is the characters. I kinda just ignored some of them as there are so many and it's not visual. It's hard to just remember names.
Conclusion
Very impressive book in the scope and level of info. It doesn't feel like the most relevant history book out there but it's a big project and a good book about it so combined these 2 factors make it stand out as a history book.
It's not a book that changed my mind on anything or taught me great important things I didn't know already. But it does present a new side of history I didn't know much about and it's for sure very engaging and fun. It's not a must-read book in the history genre unless you want to read a lot of history. But it is way more entertaining than most stuff you will read, history or otherwise.
I checked out the audiobook from my library's Overdrive program. As I was listening, I'd try to find my place in the actual book I also checked out from the library and kept having a hard time.
After a while I realized my audiobook was abridged and not in a good way. I missed all the asides and personal insights that make a David McCullough book so engaging. I won't make that mistake again.
My advise, never go with any abridged book/audiobook. Go big or go home (read the real book or don't bother.)
After a while I realized my audiobook was abridged and not in a good way. I missed all the asides and personal insights that make a David McCullough book so engaging. I won't make that mistake again.
My advise, never go with any abridged book/audiobook. Go big or go home (read the real book or don't bother.)
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