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As much a political history as history of the world's most ambitious construction project, McCullough traces the tortuous fortunes of the canal in tandem with the lives of the men who dreamed of its completion. McCullough, ever with a keen eye for personalities and temperament, does a fine job of making key players come to life. Here we have that noble (if flawed) figurehead Ferdinand de Lesseps, the developer/hero of the Suez Canal, who undertook a similar mission at Panama (and failed). Here a
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McCullough does an amazing job of telling the grand story behind the building of the Panama Canal--through its 40+ year history of being planned and built. All the characters and pitfalls, the successes and failures, the steps forward and those backwards--till the thing was done, till the Rooseveltian "dirt will fly" was successfully accomplished and the first ship lifted up through the locks over the isthmus. What a great read! What great pictures included as well.
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