Canal Dreamers - by Jessica M Lepler

About the Book

"In the 1820s, 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"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

In the 1820s, there was a little-known quest to unite the world by building a waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. As 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 global waterway.

Jessica M. 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.

Review Quotes

"Canal Dreamers promises to recover both the prehistory of a familiar tale--the building of an isthmian canal--and a lost moment in the history of the Americas. Simply put, it is a pleasure to read."--Nicholas Guyatt, author of Bind Us Apart: How Enlightened Americans Invented Racial Segregation

"A preeminent historian of global capitalism, Jessica M. Lepler exposes the first schemes to bisect Panama in this innovative transoceanic and transcontinental history. Canal Dreamers shows how history that never happened can still matter, inviting readers to feel how historical dead ends can still offer hope for our future." -- Scott A. Sandage, author of Born Losers: A History of Failure in America

"In tracing a dazzlingly wide range of characters and shifting nationalities--Indigenous, European, and American--Jessica M. Lepler reveals the revolutionary optimism and entangled preposterousness of early nineteenth-century ambitions to connect the Atlantic and Pacific through Central America." -- Kathleen DuVal, author of Native Nations: A Millennium in North America

About the Author

Jessica Lepler is associate professor of history at the University of New Hampshire.