About this book
The Path Between the Seas tells the story of the Panama Canal from 1870 to its opening in 1914. It begins with the French attempt led by Ferdinand de Lesseps, fresh from his success at Suez, which ended in financial scandal and heavy loss of life. It then follows the United States under Theodore Roosevelt as it backed Panama's independence from Colombia and took on the project itself.
David McCullough covers the engineering, the politics and the people, from the engineers who settled on a lock canal to the doctors who fought yellow fever and malaria, and the thousands of workers, many from the Caribbean, who did the dangerous labour. He shows how medicine and engineering advanced together to make the canal possible.
This was one of McCullough's early books, and it already has his gift for turning a vast enterprise into a human story. For his later work on American innovators, read The Wright Brothers; for the same era in a darker key, try The Devil in the White City.
Who it’s for
For readers who enjoy engineering, politics and big projects; long and detailed but steadily engaging.
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