The Path Between the Seas

The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914

By: David McCullough

Narrated by: Edward Herrmann

Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the National Book Award for history, 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.

©2003 David McCullough (P)2003 Simon and Schuster Inc. All rights reserved. AUDIOWORKS is an imprint of Simon and Schuster Audio Division, Simon and Schuster Inc.

Critic reviews

"A chunk of history full of giant-sized characters and rich in political skullduggery." (The New York Times)

Enlightening

I had always viewed the building of the Panama Canal as something akin to the building of the Empire State building or the Apollo space program... something that was far on the fringe of engineering possibility of the time. While I assumed construction captured the attention at the time and was admired as an engineering feat afterwards. After listening to this title, I now realize that building the canal could be characterized as an obsession of an era... a just-out-of-reach-vision for half a century.

I found the book both well written and well researched. Narration was first rate.

A great book

Having been to the canal, I loved the detailed descriptions of the scale & scope of the various efforts that eventually conquered the challenge!

decent, but slow at times

The story was interesting, and the detail was great to hear, especially how they?re dealing with mosquitoes causing diseases (shades of West Nile!). However, there wasn?t enough personal experience, most is seen through the eyes of the leaders, and not enough of the workers. You want to know how these men spent their days, but too much time is spent on the French and how they failed.

Another great McCullough read

This is a wonderful book - great pace and very interesting. While I did know some of the basics of the Panama Canal - the author goes into far greater details, over many years, as to the political ramimifications of the ulitmate canal site - the operational and business aspects and how various diseases were combated along the way. Ed Hermann does another good job as narrator. Highly recommend!

True Scale

Please bear in mind that I am addicted to McCullough's works and biased but, nevertheless, this book gives a true sense of the scale of achievement of the civil engineer. Anyone who thinks that great projects should go according to some well thought out plan should consider the reality highlighted in this book.

Classic McCullough

Thoroughly enjoyable. No one brings the past to life like David McCullough. I loved it.

Fascinating story

I loved the story, good performance. The story was interesting and factual. Love David McCullough.

Great story

Everyone said I absolutely had to read this book before my Panama Cruise, and I’m so glad I did. I’m just sorry I chickened out with the abridged version, I wish I’d gone for the full story.

Outstanding

Mr. McCullough does it again. Provides a compelling description of a challenge and how it was overcome. Tight prose, colorful characters, attention to detail but not overly so are characteristics that come to mind. Recommend for the history buff.

what story of competition of a dream

from the lowest level of worker to the top officials the trials they all faced including death gave me a hole new level of what the human specie's can accomplish for the good of all