Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Dallas Public Library | 972.875 McCullough | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Independence Public Library | 972.875 McCullough 1977 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | 972.875 MCCULLOUGH | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Mount Angel Public Library | 972.875 MCCULLOUGH | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Salem Main Library | 972.875 McCullough 1977 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stayton Public Library | 972.875 MCC | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Willamina Public Library | 972.875 MCCULLOUGH | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Truman," here is the national bestselling epic chronicle of the creation of the Panama Canal. In "The Path Between the Seas," acclaimed historian David McCullough delivers a first-rate drama of the sweeping human undertaking that led to the creation of this grand enterprise. "The Path Between the Seas" tells the story of the men and women who fought against all odds to fulfill the 400-year-old dream of constructing an aquatic passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is a story of astonishing engineering feats, tremendous 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, the history of technology, international intrigue, and human drama. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Author Notes
David McCullough was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 7, 1933. He received a bachelor's degree in English literature from Yale University in 1955. After graduation, he moved to New York City and worked as a trainee at Sports Illustrated. He later worked as a writer and editor for the United States Information Agency, in Washington, D.C., including a position at American Heritage.
His first book, The Johnstown Flood, was published in 1968. His other books include 1776, Brave Companions, The Great Bridge, and The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris. He received the Pulitzer Prize twice for Truman and John Adams and the National Book Award twice for The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal and Mornings on Horseback. He also won two Francis Parkman Prizes, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and New York Public Library's Literary Lion Award. Two of his books, Truman and John Adams, have been adapted into a television movie and mini-series, respectively, by HBO. In December 2006, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He also made the New York Times Best Seller List in 2015 with his book The Wright Brothers, and in 2017 with The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Kirkus Review
A first-rate drama of-mobilization and diplomacy ""not unlike that of war."" When fifteen years of struggle by Suez veteran Ferdinand de Lesseps to build a canal through the Panamanian isthmus collapsed through tropical disease, logistical barriers, and financial disgrace, two Americans managed literally superlative accomplishments: moving billions of cubic yards of dirt, harnessing one of the world's most savage rivers, developing an unprecedented lock and electrical system--and, not least, defeating the Anopheles mosquito. In an open, vigorous style, the author of The Johnstown Flood (1968) and The Brooklyn Bridge (1972) contrasts the manic-depressive attitudes of French and American populations and leaders toward the canal with the cool perseverance of his two heroes: the engineer John Stevens, a former common laborer who took charge of the collapsing canal project and realized that the problem was not digging but transportation; and Dr. William Gorges, who conquered malaria and yellow fever in a region where hospital rooms used to literally shake from patients' chills. Ironically, it was the often jingoistic ""Manifest Destiny"" rhetoric and the medical experience of the brutal Spanish-American War that provided Congressional backing and scientific leads for the Panama task. A further twist was the origin of the Panamanian republic which permitted the canal to go through: French adventurer Phillippe Bunau-Varilla executed a coup against Colombia in 1903 for ""the greater glory of France,"" then, according to McCullough, promptly put the new nation and its treasury under the wardship of the US State Department and the House of Morgan respectively. Meanwhile, viewing the French example, Congress so feared possible graft in Panama that it threw horrific red tape around the canal project. But Stevens was able to recruit the greatest engineering minds of the period--and the book is able to recapture their breakthroughs. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
First, a glorious vision of what might be animates worldwide imaginations: a canal to bisect the New World whereby commerce in vast quantities would pass more cheaply than anyone had heretofore dreamed. France in particular had the vision and the man for the job: Ferdinand de Lesseps, who had led the construction of the Suez Canal. A long back and forth about the new canal's route several times almost gave the nod to Honduras. Then, what type of canal should it be, sea level or lock based? Meanwhile, the Isthmus of Panama festered-a malarial swamp interspersed with high mountains, awash in bubbling mud, sick with yellow fever. Pulitzer Prize winner McCullough gathers all these threads and adds the human drama: engineers who underestimated the challenge; their families, many of whom died from the yellow fever; and black workers from the Caribbean who were better paid than they could have been elsewhere. The engineering was spectacular; the locks still function flawlessly today. McCullough's careful research and genius for narrative come brilliantly through; distinguished actor Edward Herrmann adds just the proper gravitas and warmth. The very fine combination should be welcome in history collections in any type of library.-Don Wismer, Cary Memorial Lib., Wayne, ME (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Preface | p. 11 |
| Book 1 The Vision 1870-1894 | p. 17 |
| 1. Threshold | p. 19 |
| 2. The Hero | p. 45 |
| 3. Consensus of One | p. 70 |
| 4. Distant Shores | p. 101 |
| 5. The Incredible Task | p. 124 |
| 6. Soldiers Under Fire | p. 153 |
| 7. Downfall | p. 182 |
| 8. The Secrets of Panama | p. 204 |
| Book 2 Stars and Stripes Forever 1890-1904 | p. 243 |
| 9. Theodore the Spinner | p. 245 |
| 10. The Lobby | p. 270 |
| 11. Against All Odds | p. 305 |
| 12. Adventure by Trigonometry | p. 329 |
| 13. Remarkable Revolution | p. 361 |
| 14. Envoy Extraordinary | p. 387 |
| Book 3 The Builders 1904-1914 | p. 403 |
| 15. The Imperturbable Dr. Gorgas | p. 405 |
| 16. Panic | p. 438 |
| 17. John Stevens | p. 459 |
| 18. The Man with the Sun in His Eyes | p. 490 |
| 19. The Chief Point of Attack | p. 529 |
| 20. Life and Times | p. 555 |
| 21. Triumph | p. 589 |
| Afterword | p. 616 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 618 |
| Notes | p. 623 |
| Sources | p. 655 |
| Index | p. 671 |