Panama Fever: The Epic Story of the Building of the Panama Canal

by Matthew Parker

Book Overview

2014 is the 100-year-anniversary of the panama canal: one of the most extraordinary engineering feats in world history.Hell's Gorge traces a heroic dream that spanned four centuries: to build a canal... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400095182
• ISBN13: 9781400095186
• Release Date: March 2009
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 576 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Epic story

Detailed comprehesive look at the French and American efforts to build the canal. The focus on the geographic challenges and the ever present danger of illness was facinating. The author vividly describes the harsh conditions for the international workforce.

Delightful, informative reading

Fascinating and illuminating! Having lived in the Canal Zone through my Junior High and Senior High years I was enthralled with the historical facts and how close we were to the actual opening of the Canal. We moved there in 1940. Well written and easy to read. Good job!

Find Out who built the Canal

There are a lot of books out there that describe the epic building of the Panama Canal 100 years ago, but most of them focus on facts, the engineers, have lots of pictures or are in fact straight historical works. If you want to only focus of the tremendous history and effort that went into the construction you should read David McCullough's The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914 Panama Fever is different. It does cover the basic facts of the building of the Canal, but rather than focusing on the timeline, facts, medical, and engineering feats, Panama Fever focuses more on the workers who toiled behind the scenes in this great endeavor. Tens of thousands of normal people worked on the construction of the Panama Canal. They came from the United States and many of the Caribbean Islands. The pay was good, the work was hard and especially in the beginning the risks from disease were huge. Thousands died during the construction from both disease and accidents. I grew up and worked in the Panama Canal Zone from 1947 to 1972. I loved my time there and have a large collection of historic books on Panama most of which I have read. Panama Fever is the first book, especially published recently, that covers the stories of the workers rather than the engineering. It is fascinating and well worth the read. You will appreciate the tremendous effort and sacrifices made by the workers on the line during the construction and next time you take a cruise through the Canal have a much deeper understanding of how difficult it was to actually build the Canal. One fact that is still not really understood by most who travel to Panama or transit the Canal is that for over 80 years following the completion of the Canal tens of thousands of Americans and Caribbean Islanders continued to work on the daily operation and maintenance of the Canal. They lived, worked, had families, and even died in the Canal Zone. And then they were gone, relocated back to the United States following the final return of the Canal and the Canal Zone to Panama in 1999. Someday their stories need to be told. Ewald Wiberg author of The Perfect Vacation: One Couple's Adventures at Sea With and Without the Kids

A Different Perspective on the Building of the Canal

There are a lot of books out there that describe the epic building of the Panama Canal 100 years ago, but most of them focus on facts, the engineers, have lots of pictures or are in fact straight historical works. Panama Fever is different. It does cover the basic facts of the building of the Canal, but rather than focusing on the timeline, facts, medical, and engineering feats, Panama Fever focuses more on the workers who toiled behind the scenes in this great endeavor. Tens of thousands of normal people worked on the construction of the Panama Canal. They came from the United States and many of the Caribbean Islands. The pay was good, the work was hard and especially in the beginning the risks from disease were huge. Thousands died during the construction from both disease and accidents. I grew up and worked in the Panama Canal Zone from 1947 to 1972. I loved my time there and have a large collection of historic books on Panama most of which I have read. Panama Fever is the first book, especially published recently, that covers the stories of the workers rather than the engineering. It is fascinating and well worth the read. You will appreciate the tremendous effort and sacrifices made by the workers on the line during the construction and next time you take a cruise through the Canal have a much deeper understanding of how difficult it was to actually build the Canal. One fact that is still not really understood by most who travel to Panama or transit the Canal is that for over 80 years following the completion of the Canal tens of thousands of Americans and Caribbean Islanders continued to work on the daily operation and maintenance of the Canal. They lived, worked, had families, and even died in the Canal Zone. And then they were gone, relocated back to the United States following the final return of the Canal and the Canal Zone to Panama in 1999. Someday their stories need to be told. Ewald Wiberg author of The Perfect Vacation: One Couple's Adventures at Sea With and Without the Kids

Intersting take on a great story

The very narrowness of the Isthmus of Panamless than forty miles wide in certain sections, together with the relative calmness of the two great masses of water which caress her shores, appears to have destined Panamrom time immemorial to become, as present day Panamanians are proud to boast, "the Crossroads of the World." That has not been accomplished without a price; the history of Panamwhether as an exploited Spanish colony, or as a neglected sector of Colombia, or as a republic, is replete with examples of decisions fundamental to her very existence and freedom being made by non-Panamanians in far away lands. It all began in the 1490?s with Columbus? vain search for a water passage to the riches of the Far East. He never found it. In 1501, Rodrigo de Bastidas became the first European to set foot on the Isthmus of PanamSPAN>. After relieving the Indians of a fortune in pearls and gold, he enslaved as many hapless souls as he could20carry off. Thus, were native Isthmians first introduced to the ways more materially advanced civilizations. Time would change the list of characters but not necessarily their behavior. <br /> <br />Twelve years after Bastidas, the intrepid Vasco N?de Balboa marched into history at the head of a motley band of adventurers. He led them on a fifty-mile blood strewn trek through Panams steaming jungles to discover the Pacific Ocean. <br /> <br />When they reached its shores the tide was out. So Balboa and his twenty-six men, the first Europeans ever to cast eyes upon that great body of water, found themselves, in spite of their proven ability to overcome man and nature, obliged to wait. Finally, the tide came in. Balboa, put on his armor and carrying ?a flag with the coat of arms of Castile and Leon on one side and a picture of the Virgin and child on the reverse,? plunged into the ocean and lay formal claim to its waters and all surrounding territories. <br /> <br /> <br />Interest in a transoceanic canal blossomed and motivated many a powerful person. The enlightened Charles V sent a team to ascertain the feasibility of constructing such a passage during the mid 1500's. His son the pious and inept Philip suppressed the preliminary studies stating that ?a canal would be against God's will.? <br /> <br /> <br />Many nations England, France, Scotland and the United States among others all had ambitions for the narrow isthmus. Time would pass, blood would be shed, fortunes and reputations would be lost but on August 15, 1914, the SS Ancon sailed into history as the first ship to transverse the Panama Canal. It was a dream come true. <br /> <br />Author Matthew Parker, born in Central America and educated in England, has written a distinct ive history of the dramatic and drastic battle to build the canal. Parker?s book is unique because aside from telling the fascinating story gracefully and with style he captures the anguish and grim reality of those consumed by the endeavor. He depicts