The Path between the Seas : Book Review Essay Example

alleged westward route to China. They in turn found their channel blocked by the huge land masses of the Americas. The expeditions of Ferdinand Magellan and James Cook revealed that there was only one way to reach the Pacific Ocean without crossing the Western Hemispheric land mass: voyagers had to sail around the southernmost tip of South America. The explorations of Vasco Nunez de Balboa also showed that the best route across the American land mass was through the Isthmus of Panama.Subsequently, a large number of people from Europe landed on the East Coast of the US, seeking their probable great fortune.

 The Panama Rail Road was built to cater to this traffic, and soon its stocks were soaring at the New York stock exchange. In the 1850s, one British explorer actually formulated out a passageway which could be taken through the mountains of Panama. Then, the U.S. Army explorers in the 1850s and 60s investigated substitute routes through both Panama and Nicaragua. The canal through Nicaraguan canal seemed a feasible alternative to some.

Although it would be a route that would be longer than that of Panama, yet it would be easier to build as it did not have as many mountains in the way. However, the negative point for Nicaragua was that there was a lot of volcanic activity prevalent in the area.Thus to further facilitate matters to the travelers, all that needed to be done was to build a ship canal through Panama; a proposition that seemed simple to many people. However, the project would not be as easy as it seemed on paper.

The book narrates that the construction came to

involve the efforts of thousands of workers from various nationalities over forty years. In difficult working conditions and at the face of adversaries in the form of disease and weather, workers made sure that this task would be made possible.The work on the project began in 1860. Initially, this project was undertaken by the French, under the direction of entrepreneur Ferdinand de Lesseps, who broke while pursuing his dream of extending the French control in the Americas. From the very beginning, it was a task prone to failure. The Panamanian landscape proved much more difficult than originally was thought.

There was no medication of preventing or curing the scourges of malaria, yellow fever, cholera, dysentery, pneumonia, and other illnesses that plagued the expedition.Due all the problems, France was jolted in its foundations. Another nation, Colombia, lost its most valued possession – the Isthmus of Panama. Nicaragua on the other hand, was on the verge of becoming a world crossroads, but the confirmed dream of economic and political boom was left to wait for some future opportunity. This was the cue for the United States, when President Theodore Roosevelt chalked out the acquisition of the canal, only after orchestrating a revolution that removed Panama from Colombian rule and placed it conveniently in the American camp.

Ultimately, the Republic of Panama was born, and the United States ventured on a role of global involvement.The building of the Panama Canal was the largest and most expensive single effort ever mounted anywhere in this world, and it affected the lives of millions throughout the world. Its creation was far more than a vast, unprecedented feat of manufacturing. Actually, it

was a profoundly important historic event and a sweeping human drama not unlike that of some form of conflict.

The way this event alone synergized both political and economic interests of many continents was unprecedented. Many great battles of the world have actually been fought with futile consequences, but this engineering event was to have more drastic events on global polarization of power than many wars had previously done. And it did not go without gaining the required attention of the world. For over 4 decades, it grasped the attention of the world and ultimately affected the lives of people at every level of civilization and of practically every race and nationality. Some countries won their reputations over this feat and others lost it.

Undoubtedly, this was a life-altering event for many men and women who were directly a part of the project. How it changed the economic standing of Panama is anybody’s guess.In the history of economics and contemporary capitalism, in the history of the science of medicine, it was an event of unparalleled corollary. It gave birth to many engineering marvels, allowed for breakthroughs in planning and management techniques, and helped understand international labor relations like no other venture had ever done in the past. It was a great success of the Victorian era and an immense show of power for the American power at the beginning of the new century.

Ironically, the passage of the first ship through the canal in the summer of 1914 while marked the first ever voyage of mankind through the American land mass, actually was just a fulfillment of a dream that was seen by the European

explorers centuries ago.In all, David McCullough’s ‘The Path Between the Seas’ is not just a book, but an invaluable chronicle of history. In non-fiction, it stands out as a vastly entertaining and engaging account of a topic which could have been subdued and never been considered by the coming generation. After all, it was just the building of a canal; how intricate could it be? But the book presents it as a historic event in geo-political chronology of the world, and helps us understand how closely knit are the concepts of economics and politics in the new world of globalization.  To add to its value, the writing style and scripting of the author makes a narrative of accounts extremely interesting to read. It presents one with a new way of viewing history, in which in can actually relive the moments as the characters who were alive at that time.

It is rather difficult to divulge into books that present a seemingly dry topic in the world fact book, but this effort by McCullough not only makes the importance poof the event shine out, but also helps the reader realize that the study of history need not necessarily be uninteresting and monotonous. The author has felt the topic, and has understood the value of the event in shaping the environment of the world. It is a commendable effort, that will see even more praise as the next few centuries dawn over the magnanimous Panama Canal.