The Path Between the Seas Audiobook By David McCullough cover art

The Path Between the Seas

The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914

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The Path Between the Seas

By: David McCullough
Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
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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. 20th Century Americas Central America Engineering Modern United States Imperialism Latin America

Critic reviews

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

Fascinating Story • Detailed Account • Excellent Narration • Wonderful Storytelling • Great Pace • Deep Personal Stories
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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.

Enlightening

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

A great book

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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.

decent, but slow at times

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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!

Another great McCullough read

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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.

True Scale

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

Classic McCullough

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

Fascinating story

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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.

Great story

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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.

Outstanding

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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

what story of competition of a dream

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