On December 31, 1999, after nearly a century of rule, the United States officially ceded ownership of the Panama Canal to the nation of Panama. That nation did not exist when, in the mid-19th century, Europeans first began to explore the possibilities of creating a link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the narrow but mountainous isthmus; Panama was then a remote and overlooked part of Colombia.

All that changed, writes David McCullough in his magisterial history of the Canal, in 1848, when prospectors struck gold in California. A wave of fortune seekers descended on Panama from Europe and the eastern United States, seeking quick passage on California-bound ships in the Pacific, and the Panama Railroad, built to serve that traffic, was soon the highest-priced stock listed on the New York Exchange.

To build a 51-mile-long ship canal to replace that railroad seemed an easy matter to some investors. But, as McCullough notes, the construction project came to involve the efforts of thousands of workers from many nations over four decades; eventually those workers, laboring in oppressive heat in a vast malarial swamp, removed enough soil and rock to build a pyramid a mile high. In the early years, they toiled under the direction of French entrepreneur Ferdinand de Lesseps, who went bankrupt while pursuing his dream of extending France's empire in the Americas.

The United States then entered the picture, with President Theodore Roosevelt orchestrating the purchase of the canal—but not before helping foment a revolution that removed Panama from Colombian rule and placed it squarely in the American camp.

Reader Reviews

Deacon Tom F

(4/5)

Nov 21, 2024

Probably the definitive book on the Panama Canal. The amount of in formation is mind boggling. Recommend

Judy

It takes a lot of slogging through statistics to read this book, which is what you expect from David McCollough. At times the story gets mired in a lot of detail that I'll never remember. However, I did enjoy the book and what I learned that I think I'll keep. My biggest criticism is the lack of maps. What I learned:1. The French were the first to attempt a canal across the isthmus in Central America. This was due to the unflagging zeal of Ferdinand de Lesseps, who was instrumental in the buildi...

J.M. Hushour

(5/5)

As a once-aspiring academic, I likely thought such works of popular history such as these were merely things to sniff at, something for the public palate. Now as a disparager and dismayer of all things academic, I see McCullough's work as some of the finest history-writing you're likely to encounter. Why? Because it is fun to read and, most especially, easy to read. Popular works of history such as this do much to repair the damage that overly analytical, PoMo academistry has wrought on the diff...

Ellen

My uncle recommended it. I had barely started it when we left on a cruise of the Panama Canal, sailing from LA. This book is a detailed, non-fiction account of France's selection of the canal site in Central America, the politics, diseases, intrigues, and construction of locks and "Big Dig". I forgot all about the cruise ship activities and buried myself in this book. It awoke the "inner engineer" in me that I didn't know I had. I read it desperately night and day, hoping to finish before reachi...

Christopher Carbone

Something very strange happens about 30% through "Path Between the Seas." For the first 1/3 of the book, the reader must trudge through pedantic descriptions of very trivial matters and a hodgepodge of boring discussions on all things nautical. Then, all of a sudden McCullough does something amazing: he reminds you that people- everyday ordinary people -really cared about the Panama Canal, what it could do and what it would mean. And when it nearly failed, even though we are talking about people...

Roy Lotz

Here is yet another masterful book by David McCullough. To be honest, I knew close to nothing about the Panama Canal before starting, nor was I particularly interested in it. But this book forms a kind of trilogy with McCullough’s books on the Brooklyn Bridge and the Wright Brothers—which I had greatly enjoyed—so I felt compelled to pick it up. Even though McCullough has 600 pages, he is quite pressed for space and time, as he has to tell the story both of the French’s failed venture and the Am...

Rob

Probably no one writes more complete – and exhaustive – histories than David McCullough. In “The Path Between the Seas,” one of his earlier works (1977), McCullough guides you through the political, financial, and engineering intricacies of building the Panama Canal, a modern wonder of the world. It’s a fascinating read, especially if you enjoy history, politics and geography. The opening of the canal – and control – allowed the United States to maintain a two-ocean navy, and provide security fo...

Brian

“Ideas too have their period of extrinsic incubation, and particularly if they run contrary to what has always seemed common sense.”Fact is almost always more interesting than fiction, and history is full of a lot of interesting facts. David McCullough has proved this time and time again in his books. “The Path Between the Seas” is one of his best examples. The history of the building of the Panama Canal is one I knew nothing about and it is one hugely fascinating story. The 44 year span between...

David Putnam

This is a wonderful book. I read this book ahead of a cruise my wife and I took through the Panama Canal and was stunned at the massive under taking to accomplish this structure. This is a part of history I knew nothing about. How France went bankrupt trying to finish it, the huge numbers of people who died from yellow fever and the theories at the time of why. Fascinating.At one point the author gives a list of what one surveying expedition took on the trip. For me the list is fascinating all o...

Nick (Out of This World SFF)

You wouldn't think that a book detailing the creation of the Panama Canal would be an exciting and quick read. Well, you'd be wrong! I love David McCullough, I think he is flat-out the best biographer out there as well as being one hell of a history author. 1776 is my favorite book about the American revolution. The Path Between the Seas had me so interested in geology, Central American politics, jungle wildlife, topography, stuff that I would never have thought I would be interested in. It's no...

Colleen Browne

I wasn't sure whether to award 4 or 5 stars to this book until I realized that my withholding a star had more to do with me than the book. In his typically lucid prose, McCullough wrote a complete history of the building of the Canal. The research was impeccable; the book deserves all the accolades it received. From the disastrous French attempt at building it to the American struggles and finally success, the reader is given the full story. The egos involved always meant that there would be con...

Erik Graff

David McCullough is a safe bet for popular history. He writes well, ambling along from the main thread of his story--here, the building of the Panama Canal--to include illuminating historical background and biographies of the principals.The story of the canal is at once impressive, from the engineering standpoint, and depressing, as one of the many sordid chapters of US imperialism. McCullough details how we "engineered" the creation of a puppet Panamanian state along with a canal in his account...

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

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

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

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