Path of Empire - (United States in the World) by Aims McGuinness (Hardcover)

About the Book

Path of Empire reveals how U.S. imperial projects in Panama were integral to developments in California and the larger process of U.S. continental expansion, offering a model for the new transnational history.

Book Synopsis

Most people in the United States have forgotten that tens of thousands of U.S. citizens migrated westward to California by way of Panama during the California Gold Rush. Decades before the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914, this slender spit of land abruptly became the linchpin of the fastest route between New York City and San Francisco--a route that combined travel by ship to the east coast of Panama, an overland crossing to Panama City, and a final voyage by ship to California. In Path of Empire, Aims McGuinness presents a novel understanding of the intertwined histories of the California Gold Rush, the course of U.S. empire, and anti-imperialist politics in Latin America. Between 1848 and 1856, Panama saw the building, by a U.S. company, of the first transcontinental railroad in world history, the final abolition of slavery, the establishment of universal manhood suffrage, the foundation of an autonomous Panamanian state, and the first of what would become a long list of military interventions by the United States.Using documents found in Panamanian, Colombian, and U.S. archives, McGuinness reveals how U.S. imperial projects in Panama were integral to developments in California and the larger process of U.S. continental expansion. Path of Empire offers a model for the new transnational history by unbinding the gold rush from the confines of U.S. history as traditionally told and narrating that event as the history of Panama, a small place of global importance in the mid-1800s.

Review Quotes

Path of Empire makes an important contribution to the historiography of the California gold rush, Panama, and U.S. expansion and intervention in Latin America. It promises not only to expand scholars' knowledge of their fields but also to challenge them to engage previously overlooked transnational connections.

Drawing upon research in Panama, Colombia, and the United States, McGuinness's fine study Path of Empire not only provides new perspectives on U.S. expansion but explores events whose broader importance within Latin American history is often overlooked. Path of Empire is an innovative study of a largely unexamined topic. By drawing upon Panamanian sources and narratives, McGuinness places Panama at the center of a crucial episode in global history, providing a fresh perspective on Latin America's encounter with U.S. empire. This is an original and provocative book, and McGuinness's recounting of his travails in Panama's National Archive is alone worth the price. Path of Empire will appeal to scholars of U.S. as well as Latin American history and would serve as an excellent early reading in courses on U.S.-Latin American relations.

In Path of Empire, Aims McGuinness has crafted a well-conceived and painstakingly executed account of Panama in the face of U.S. imperialism. As far as Americans were concerned, Panama was simply a transit zone, and the efforts of interested parties-Panamanians, travelers, American capitalists-to take advantage of that fact form the meat of this book. By placing this story in his chosen context, McGuinness illustrates the true breadth of his topic.

McGuinness is a superb storyteller.

This fine book tells a multilayered story about intersections among people, capital, and nations in Panama during the gold-rush era.... It has many virtues: a self-reflexive style; a rich source base in autobiographies, travel accounts, and records from both the United States and Panama; a focus that both acknowledges states and also presents them as comprised of disaggregated actors; a sense of historical change as contested.... In this small and carefully researched book, McGuinness rises above the specificity of time and place to address broad questions about race, gender, class, nation, and empire. He also stresses the often lopsided nature of historical remembrances. Scholars from many different fields will appreciate the book's expansive thematic and interpretive reach.

About the Author

Aims McGuinness is Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.