The Panama Canal: The Story of how a jungle was conquered and the world made smaller (Wonders of the World Book)

The Panama Canal is not the first book in the Wonders of the World series we've purchased. Thus I was dumbfounded to find the inaccuracies and outright bias with which The Panama Canal ends.I am a trained medical scientist, a member of the American Chemical Society's medicinal and analytical divisions - one with a lifetime love of history. Thus, when I read "Black Carribeans suffered a higher rate of death from accidents and disease than any other group in the Canal Zone" I want to see the supporting evidence for that claim, especially as the author blames this disparity on official US government policy of segregation.The eradication of yellow fever and control of malaria in the Panama Canal Zone under the lead of William Gorgas is one of the finest accomplishments of the United States Public Health Service, one for which we remain grateful even today. One recent report from Harvard University's Contagion program states:"Gorgas's success in Panama was as dramatic as in Cuba: by 1906, he eradicated yellow fever and contained malaria during the canal's 10-year construction period. Gorgas's sanitary workers drained, or covered with kerosene, all sources of standing water to prevent mosquitoes from laying their eggs and larvae from developing; fumigated areas infested with adult mosquitoes; isolated disease-stricken patients with screening and netting; and constructed quarantine facilities. In major urban centers, new domestic water systems provided running water to residents, thereby eliminating the need for collecting rain water in barrels, which had provided perfect breeding sites for mosquitoes carrying yellow fever.The US government's $20 million investment in the sanitation program also provided free medical care and burial services to thousands of employees. In addition, Gorgas's sanitation department dispensed approximately one ton of prophylactic quinine each year at 21 dispensaries along the Panama Canal route and added hospital cars to trains that crossed the Isthmus. Each year, hospitals treated approximately 32,000 workers, and 6,000 were treated in sick camps."[...]I have no doubt that more blacks suffered accidents & illness while working on the Panama Canal than did whites. Most of the lower paid jobs were filled by minorities from all over the world - Indians, Chinese and yes, Caribbeans. Most of the engineers were from the United States and white. There were very few black engineers anywhere in the world in 1903. But to describe that higher accident and illness rate as a result of racism is a total fallacy. More importantly, I have found no reliable statistics that bear out Mann's assertion that Caribbean workers suffered any higher rates of injury/illness than Indian workers or other ethnic groups.In 1903 - the same year the US took over construction of the Panama Canal - a group of people in North Pownal, Vermont, suffered a much higher rate of accident and illness than their neighbors. Their children received a poor education and were often forced into dangerous work by age 10. These people were mostly immigrants and many did not speak English. They lived in substandard housing. They had little hope of ever leaving their dead end jobs or earning much more than they were making. You can read their story in  Counting on Grace . Make no mistake, this is a story that was repeated in virtually every town and city in New England in 1903. And it is not a story about racism or disparate treatment because of color. It is a story about poverty, low pay and lack of rights for workers. That, too, is a story that is with us even today.I was further dumbfounded to read that in Mann's estimation the building of the Panama Canal provided no military advantage to the US. Certainly the US Navy would disagree with her assessment. The Panama Canal was vital to US and Allied interests during WWII and made a response to the destruction of the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor possible months earlier than would have otherwise occurred.Nothing pains me more than to see the rewriting of history taught to children in order to push some "politically correct" agenda. We've plenty of incidents of real bias that none need be invented. This is one Wonders of the World book that will not be used in my classroom. And I'll be very cautious about buying any others in the series.Not recommended.

I purchased this book as part of the preparation for taking my 6yo and 9yo on a cruise with a full Canal transit. The reading level is appropriate for older elementary children and the illustrations are quite beautiful. This is definitely a children's book, albeit one aimed at older kids.I agree with previous reviewers that there is a definitive slant to the history provided by the author. Were this the only resource we were using to learn about the Canal, I would have felt compelled to tweak it to remove some of the author's bias. Instead, we are opting to explore several resources about the Canal, comparing and contrasting as we go. So far our two favorites are this book and the Nova special narrated by Path Between the Seas author David McCullough:  NOVA: A Man, a Plan, a Canal - Panama Bottom line: I recommend this as a Panama Canal resource for children, with the caveat that parents should be mindful of bias if this is the only resource they will be using.

We used this book for our second grade son's home schooling project on the Panama Canal while we transited the canal in our sailboat. We were happy with the information in the book and the presentation style, which helped him make sense of what he was seeing. He then went on to write quite a detailed report on the Panama Canal with this book as one of his sources.- Nadine Slavinski, author of Lesson Plans Ahoy

Good price and informative without meaning too much .

I had greater expectations. Having just came from there, It will be okay if the grandkids do a report on it.

What a beautiful book for older children & adults that have little knowledge of the subject to share with each other. I will definitely be looking for the other books in this series.

Written for a 6th -8th grade audience, I really enjoyed it as a not too detailed story of how the canal came to be. I added in my own photos, and my grandkids have a great journal of my story and the canal's story.

The book was awful. It read like a bad 6th grade book report. I threw it in the garbage the same day it arrived. It sure doesn't make me want to buy another book. Maybe I'll throw your credit card in the garbage too - I can't believe you sell crap like that.

Was looking for a book with more visually accurate content. The illustrations were nice, but not what I was looking for. If you're looking for a book with historical pictures to accompany the content, not for you.

Provides complete facts about yhe canal without heavy reading.

good overall

thanks