Heaven’s Ditch

God, Gold, and Murder on the Erie Canal

By: Jack Kelly

Narrated by: Andrew Reilly

Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

"The Erie Canal rubbed Aladdin's lamp. America awoke, catching for the first time the wondrous vision of its own dimensions and power." - Francis Kimball, American architect

The technological marvel of its age, the Erie Canal grew out of a sudden fit of inspiration. Proponents didn't just dream; they built a 360-mile waterway entirely by hand and largely through wilderness. As excitement crackled down its length, the canal became the scene of the most striking outburst of imagination in American history. Zealots invented new religions and new modes of living. The Erie Canal made New York the financial capital of America and brought the modern world crashing into the frontier. Men and women saw God face-to-face, gained and lost fortunes, and reveled in a period of intense spiritual creativity.

Heaven's Ditch illuminates the spiritual and political upheavals along this "psychic highway", from its opening in 1825 through 1844. "Wage slave" Sam Patch became America's first celebrity daredevil. William Miller envisioned the apocalypse. Farm boy Joseph Smith gave birth to Mormonism, a new and distinctly American religion. Along the way, one encounters America's very first "crime of the century", a treasure hunt, searing acts of violence, a visionary cross-dresser, and a panoply of fanatics, mystics, and hoaxers. A pause-register narrative, Heaven's Ditch offers an excitingly fresh look at a heady, foundational moment in American history.

©2016 Jack Kelly (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

An under told story of the United States.

If you could sum up Heaven’s Ditch in three words, what would they be?

Religion, Politics, Violence.

What did you like best about this story?

The intertwining of the chapters between the canal's life and the American life during the first decades of the 1800's.

What about Andrew Reilly’s performance did you like?

He was very clear and his voice was pleasant to listen to.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

God, Gold And Murder - just as Mr. Kelly has subtitled the book.

Any additional comments?

This was such a good, interesting book! It wove the early commercial, spiritual, and political happenings of the time into a very compelling story. That so many characters in American history bumped shoulders in the corridor of the Erie Canal and that what happened in roughly fifty years still affects us.
The beginnings of both the Mormon and Seventh Day Adventist Churches, of the abolitionist fervor that resulted in the founding of Oberlin College and the start of a political party that would eventually becoming the Republican party of Lincoln all took place or were influenced by this era. I will not spoil it, but the wife of a missing man from the early section of the book reappears later as an intimate of another major character - a twist not unlike that of a novel but one of complete truth. Jack Kelly shows in this book that history is always with us.

History of great 19th century change

I really enjoyed this book. It tells of not only vivid stories of the Building of the Erie Canal and how it changed the Country, but the spirit of revival that occurred about the same time and the early history of the LDS Church and Seventh Day Adventist’s. Interesting stories about Masons as well.

Clearly two different books

One on Erie Canal, one on Mormonism and other upstart religions of the time. Both interesting books, but the jumping back and forth detracts somewhat from ones comprehension. No editors left at st martins press?

Fantastic

I was looking for a non-Mormon based book about Upstate State New York in the early 19th century to round out my understanding of the social, political and cultural milieu that influenced Joseph Smith. To my surprise, the Smith saga represents about 1/3 of the book. Being an early-Mormon history enthusiast, I often cringe at weak attempts by disinterested authors to summarize Joseph Smith’s actions. Kelly does a fantastic job reflecting the nuance and complexity of Smith’s motivations without skipping important details. You don’t need a pitchfork and torch to prove Joseph was a fraud, just accurate, straightforward history. I almost listened to the book straight through.

INFRASTRUCTURE + RELIGION = CULTURE

A very interesting historical sketch of the early 1800's, touching on American dreams/ingenuity, religion, politics, sex, drugs, westward expansion and engineering - all of which set the stage for the civil war. Not much has changed in the past two hundred years it seems. Well, maybe a few things... Really enjoyed the book and recommend it. Even though I don't like big companies monopolizing the book industry, the audible version was read quite well.

Very Informative

I didn't know much about Erie Canal before reading this book but it gave good background on other events during and after building of Canal

Little about the Erie canal ... all about Mormons

I bought this book since I thought it would be a good book to learn the history surrounding the Erie canal in anticiaption of a planned trip to the region. Instead its a book mostly about Mormons and has very little to do with the canal at all. It is awful slow and just talks mostly about Mormons with little anything else about upstate NY and the region. Just terrible to try to get through. I tried listening in small bites and got so bored it gave up with a few hours left. If you want to hear about the origin story of religion buy it - if you want a history of the canal look elsewhere....