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  – by David McCullough

My first David McCullough book that was not about a “person”.  This one takes on the creation of the Panama Canal.  The people, the places, the motives, the governments, the struggles, and on and on and on are featured here.  This is an awful lot to digest, but I guess that was kind of the point.  This book succeeds in many ways, but I must confess that there were times when I wished the author would have trimmed things down a bit, or at least tried some different methods of writing.

As the book’s title tells us, we’re dealing with 44 years of history around this thing.  That’s a lot of time, and I felt like the author left nothing out.  The problem is, this much detail can be a bit overwhelming.  First, anytime you read a book that deals with geography, it’s always a good idea to have a map handy.  While this book does contain maps, I read it on a Kindle, which means it isn’t as easy to flip back and forth every time you’re reading about a town, city, river, dam, lake, jungle, etc.   Since the book was probably written long before anyone ever envisioned what an “electronic book” would look like, I can give this particular annoyance a pass.

What really is hard, though, and I mean really hard, is trying to keep up with all of names of the key players.  There are literally hundreds of people within these pages, and at times, I couldn’t keep my head from spinning.  I believe this story could have been told without so many people being named.  It really became frustrating.  Example: there’s one section in the book that deals with the Panamanian Revolution, and you’re forced to keep the names Amador, Arias, and Arango straight in your head.  Not easy for this reviewer.

Now, you may have read that last paragraph and wondered why the Panamanian Revolution is discussed in a book about the Panama Canal.  Well, actually it has an awful lot to do with the canal, since it essentially happened right in the middle of the project.  That being said, the inclusion of such an event is warranted, it’s just that the author goes on and on (and on) about every singles aspect of the uprising.  You tend to forget that you’re  reading a book about, you know, a canal, and it’s very easy for one to lose focus.

In addition to the revolution, we get to read about the initial attempt by the French to build the thing (they failed, essentially), the living conditions, the diseases, the American government picking up the pieces, the politics, and mosquitos.  A lot of mosquitos.  There’s even a diagram of a mosquito in the illustration section of this book.

Again, all of this really is important to the story, and it’s a bit sad that, over a century later, people really don’t appreciate this part of history that accomplished the unthinkable – bridge the two biggest oceans together by creating a man made canal.  I was glad that I read the book, but to be completely honest, I was more glad to be finished with the book than anything.  However, I did learn quite a lot.