Very nice book about the building of the Panama Canal. Twenty-five chapters. I read the eBook version. ( )

Panama Fever: The Building of the Panama Canal by Matthew Parker This is the whole story of the canal and I'm convinced that nothing is left out, it is so comprehensive if not mind numbing at times.A well written and cohesive account that ceratinly goes overboard on statistics and dates and at times I thought that comprehensiveness outweighed comprehensibility.Interestingly interwoven with first hand accounts from both white and black folks albeit with very different stories to tell depending on their race. Certainly not an exercise in enlightenment and no surprises given the American running of stage two of the canal. The French stage failed due to bad planning, lack of finance and a fatally flawed plan. The black workers that spanned both stages stated that life was better under the French.The treatment of non-American and non-white Americans is as bad as you can ever imagine but given the age I guess not surprising.Judgement apart, this is a well researched and well written piece of work.ProsWell researchedWell writtenComprehensiveGood flowConsLong winded ( )

Com riqueza de detalhes o livro nos deixa bem informados sobre a obra em si e o contexto político da época. Mostra já o início da trajetória predatória dos EUA pela apropriação violenta do território e da autonomia do povo panamenho.

This tells the story of the Panama Canal from the origins of the idea with the Spanish explorers to the completion of the canal at the start of WW I. Lots of detail and firsthand accounts, but Parker does a nice job of moving the story along, explaining the technical details without bogging down the human story. ( )

For a book about a place with so much water - this book was bone dry! I drudged through it hoping it would get better, but no such luck. Too much concentration on the political and scheming side of the construction and NOT on the actual building of the canal. ( )