Few engineering feats have shaped the modern world as profoundly as the Panama Canal. Stretching just 50 miles across Central America, it transformed global trade routes, connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and reshaped the geopolitical landscape of the 20th century. More than a marvel of engineering, the canal is also a story of human ambition, international cooperation, and resilience in the face of daunting challenges.
The idea began with the Spanish, the plans were drawn by the French, but it ultimately took a revolution, groundbreaking technology, immense financial backing, and extraordinary human effort to bring the Panama Canal to life.
To delve into the canal’s fascinating history and enduring relevance, join us for the lecture, Crossing Oceans: The Epic History of the Panama Canal, on September 8 at 7pm. Historian and photographer Mario Medici on a compelling journey through the dramatic history of this engineering marvel. Discover the immense challenges faced during the canal’s construction, from disease and landslides to international politics and technological innovation. Learn how this man-made waterway transformed global trade, influenced the course of world events, and even led to major advances in medicine—such as the fight against yellow fever.
The talk will also explore why control of the canal was eventually transferred to Panama, and examine the United States’ ongoing strategic interest in this vital corridor. Enhanced with rare historical photographs, this presentation offers a vivid and insightful look into one of the greatest infrastructure projects in human history.
Here are some novels, nonfiction and DVDs available with your Livingston Library card that feature the Canal and will give you further insight into its conception, construction, and impact.
A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama DVD by Nova
Explore the mind boggling construction of the Panama Canal through historic film footage, rare archival photographs, and insightful narration from David McCullough.
The Canal Builders : Making America’s Empire at the Panama Canal by Julie Greene
The Panama Canal has long been celebrated as a triumph of American engineering and technology. In The Canal Builders, Julie Greene reveals that this emphasis obscures a far more remarkable element of the canal’s construction – the tens of thousands of workingmen and -women who traveled from around the world to build it. Drawing on research from around the globe, Greene explores the human dimensions of the Panama Canal story, revealing how it transformed perceptions of the American empire at the dawn of the twentieth century.
Command and Control by Marc Cameron (Fiction)
For over a century, the Panama Canal has been the lifeline of global trade. When Panamanian President Rafael Botero requests U.S. support against rising socialist opposition, President Jack Ryan accepts—only to be trapped in a violent coup. Cut off with his Secret Service team, Ryan must survive while Washington scrambles a response. Behind the chaos lurks the Camarilla, a ruthless criminal network that sees the coup as the perfect chance to eliminate the American president.
The Darkest Jungle : The True Story of the Darién Expedition and America’s Ill-Fated Race to Connect the Seas by Todd Balf
In the 1850s, the U.S. Darien Exploring Expedition set out to chart a canal route through Panama’s remote wilderness. Led by Navy lieutenant Isaac G. Strain, the twenty-seven-man team braved fraudulent maps, brutal terrain, and deadly tropical diseases. Their ninety-seven-day struggle with starvation and exhaustion became a harrowing tale of survival, courage, and devotion—an overlooked chapter in the quest to link the Atlantic and Pacific.
Emperors in the Jungle : The Hidden History of the U.S. in Panama by John Lindsay-Poland
An exposé of key episodes in the military involvement of the United States in Panama.
Whether uncovering the U.S. Army’s decades-long program of chemical weapons tests in Panama or recounting the invasion in December 1989 which was the U.S. military’s twentieth intervention in Panama since 1856, Lindsay-Poland vividly portrays the extent and costs of U.S. involvement.
The Great Divide: A Novel by Cristina Henriquez (Fiction)
A novel about the construction of the Panama Canal, following the intersecting lives of the local families fighting to protect their homeland, the West Indian laborers recruited to dig the waterway, and the white Americans who gained profit and glory for themselves.
How Wall Street Created a Nation : J.P. Morgan, Teddy Roosevelt, and the Panama Canal by Ovidio Diaz Espino
With the drama of detective fiction, this book illustrates how a combination of financial gain and arrogant American imperialism culminated in the building of the Panama Canal. Ovidio Diaz Espino has artfully pieced together the tale of a dark alliance of greed between the bankrupt French Panama Canal Company and a secret syndicate of Wall Street financiers. With the full force of Teddy Roosevelt’s Wall Street cabal and his gunboat diplomacy behind it, there was no stopping the canal project despite the objections of the American Congress and press.
Panama Canal DVD
On August 15th, 1914, the Panama Canal opened, connecting the world’s two largest oceans and signaling America’s emergence as a global superpower. This film, using an extraordinary archive of photographs and footage, interviews with canal workers, and firsthand accounts of life in the Canal Zone, unravels the remarkable story of one of the world’s most significant technological achievements.
Panama Fever : The Epic Story of One of the Greatest Human Achievements of All Time– The Building of the Panama Canal by Matthew Parker
Drawing on a wealth of new materials and sources, Matthew Parker brings to life the men (including Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Ulysses S Grant) who recognized the impact a canal would have on global politics and economics, and adds new depth to the familiar story of Teddy Roosevelt’s remarkable triumph in making the waterway a reality. Parker’s grim chronicle of the actual construction lends another meaning to Panama fever. As thousands of workers succumbed to dysentery, yellow fever, and malaria, scientists raced to stop the deadly epidemics so that work could continue. The treatments they developed changed the course of medical history. The opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 spelled the end of the Victorian Age and the beginning of the American Century.
The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 by David G. McCullough
This book 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.
Prize Possession : The United States and the Panama Canal, 1903-1979 by John Major
A history of United States policy towards the Panama Canal, focusing principally on the first two generations of American tenure of the Canal Zone between 1904 and 1955. John Major also provides an extensive look at the nineteenth-century background, the making of the 1903 canal treaty with Panama, the move after 1955 towards the new treaty settlement of 1977, and the crucial significance of the Canal to American policy-makers and their public.
The Saboteurs by Clive Cussler (Fiction)
Isaac Bell thwarts the assassination of a U.S. Senator shortly after meeting the man. But this heroic rescue is just the start of the mystery for Bell, who suspects that the would-be assassins have a much larger and more dangerous agenda–one involving the nearly-constructed Panama Canal. While the senator supports the building of the canal, there are many who never want to see its completion. With millions of dollars and the fates of two nations at stake, Bell heads to Panama to find answers. After a deadly bombing at the canal’s construction site, he is determined to stop the insurgents before they can attack again.
–Archana, Adult Services & Acquisitions Librarian