Canal Dreamers
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€91.99
A01=Jessica M. Lepler
Age of Revolutions
Alexander von Humboldt
Atlantic World
Author_Jessica M. Lepler
British History
Canal History
Caribbean History
Category=JPSD
Category=NHK
Central American History
Diplomatic History
Early American History
Early American Republic
Environmental History
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Erie Canal
Guatemalan History
History of Capitalism
History of Science and Technology
Interoceanic Canal
Jeremy Bentham
John Quincy Adams
Monroe Doctrine
Nicaragua Canal
Nicaraguan History
Panama Canal
Salvadoran History
United States History
World History
Product details
- ISBN 9781469690544
- Dimensions: 25 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 26 Aug 2025
- Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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In the 82 s, there was a little-known quest to unite the world by building a waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. As new Spanish American nations declared independence and new canals intensified US expansion and British industrialization, many imagined the construction of an interoceanic canal as predestined. With dreams substituting for data, an international cast of politicians, lawyers, philosophers, and capitalists sent competing agents on a race to transform Lake Nicaragua, the San Juan River, and the terra incognita of Central American forests into the world's first waterway.
Jessica Lepler tells the captivating story of this global journey in Canal Dreamers. Although the idea of literally changing the world by connecting the oceans proved too revolutionary for the Age of Revolution, the quest itself changed history. Canal dreams prompted political transformations, financial crisis, recognition of new countries, concern about climate change, and more. Full of adventure, corruption, far-reaching consequences, and present-day parallels, Lepler's absorbing narrative cuts through two centuries, revealing that dreams do not need to come true to make history.
Jessica Lepler tells the captivating story of this global journey in Canal Dreamers. Although the idea of literally changing the world by connecting the oceans proved too revolutionary for the Age of Revolution, the quest itself changed history. Canal dreams prompted political transformations, financial crisis, recognition of new countries, concern about climate change, and more. Full of adventure, corruption, far-reaching consequences, and present-day parallels, Lepler's absorbing narrative cuts through two centuries, revealing that dreams do not need to come true to make history.
Jessica Lepler is associate professor of history at the University of New Hampshire.
