Canal Dreamers - by Jessica M Lepler (Hardcover)

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

"In elegant prose . . . [Lepler] builds a compelling historical saga that links the aspirations of Latin American nation-builders with those of outside powers. . . . Canal Dreamers is a cautious tale of hubris and ambition, yet it also shows the spread of visions and ideas during the Age of Revolutions."--Pacific Historical Review

"What makes Canal Dreamers such a compelling read is the grandeur of the multinational drama at the center of Lepler's narrative, which unfolds to reveal a complex web of personal and institutional relationships that enveloped the Atlantic World."--H-Environment

"This clever and meticulously researched book reveals how the history of an unbuilt transoceanic canal across the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua connected. . . events and structural transformations in the Atlantic world of the 1820s."--North Carolina Historical Review

"Deeply researched, profoundly contextual, beautifully written, and filled with intrigue, Canal Dreamers immerses us in a moment of possibility and subsequent failure that transformed US-Latin American relations and shaped future canal-building efforts in the region."--Hispanic American Historical Review

"Canal Dreamers is an excellent, provocative, agenda-setting book for the comprehensive and skilled way that its author connects a disparate set of people, places, and agendas."--The Americas

"Lepler's willingness to examine unbuilt canals, to raise and tackle difficult questions, and to make important historical connections makes this a wide-ranging and fascinating read that will interest various historians of the Americas, those interested in capitalism and global trade, and historians of 19th-century America, especially those with an interest in Latin America. . . . Recommended."--CHOICE

About the Author

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