PDF Ebook Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal, by Zachary Karabell
You may not should be question concerning this Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell It is uncomplicated method to get this book Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell You could merely see the established with the link that we offer. Here, you can buy guide Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell by on-line. By downloading Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell, you can find the soft data of this book. This is the exact time for you to start reading. Also this is not published book Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell; it will specifically provide even more perks. Why? You could not bring the published publication Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell or only pile guide in your home or the workplace.
Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal, by Zachary Karabell
PDF Ebook Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal, by Zachary Karabell
Schedule Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell is one of the precious well worth that will make you consistently rich. It will certainly not mean as abundant as the money provide you. When some individuals have absence to deal with the life, individuals with several books sometimes will certainly be better in doing the life. Why need to be publication Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell It is in fact not implied that book Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell will certainly provide you power to reach everything. The book is to check out as well as just what we implied is the publication that is checked out. You could also see exactly how the book entitles Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell and varieties of publication collections are providing here.
Even the price of a publication Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell is so inexpensive; many individuals are truly stingy to allot their cash to acquire the books. The various other factors are that they really feel bad and also have no time at all to visit guide store to browse guide Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell to check out. Well, this is modern age; so numerous publications can be obtained effortlessly. As this Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell and also much more publications, they could be entered extremely quick ways. You will certainly not should go outdoors to obtain this book Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell
By visiting this page, you have actually done the appropriate staring factor. This is your begin to select the book Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell that you desire. There are bunches of referred books to read. When you would like to obtain this Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell as your book reading, you could click the link page to download and install Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell In couple of time, you have possessed your referred books as your own.
Due to the fact that of this book Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell is offered by online, it will certainly relieve you not to publish it. you could get the soft documents of this Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell to save money in your computer system, gizmo, and more devices. It depends on your determination where and also where you will certainly check out Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell One that you have to always remember is that reading book Parting The Desert: The Creation Of The Suez Canal, By Zachary Karabell will endless. You will certainly have ready to check out various other publication after finishing a publication, and it's continually.
The building of the Suez Canal was considered the greatest engineering feat of the nineteenth century, but, as Zachary Karabell shows, it was much more than a marvel of construction. It was a moment when the dreams and hopes of two cultures, several states, and thousands of ordinary people converged to change the face of the earth.
Parting the Desert describes an extraordinary meeting between East and West. The Egyptians hoped the canal would lead to a national renaissance and renewed power in the eastern Mediterranean. The French expected the canal to enhance world trade and advance Western civilization. Napoleon Bonaparte first raised the possibility of building a waterway during his occupation of Egypt in the late eighteenth century. The idea was kept alive by the utopian followers of Saint-Simon and was then taken up by Ferdinand de Lesseps, the energetic, ambitious French diplomat who masterminded the project.
As Karabell points out, Lesseps was often in the right place at the right time, and he had the good luck of forging a friendship with the young Egyptian prince Muhammad Said. In 1854, Said became the ruler of Egypt and granted Lesseps the concession to cut a hundred-mile-long canal across the isthmus of Suez. It would take fifteen years of ceaseless effort before that dream became reality.
A brilliant entrepreneur, Lesseps traveled throughout Europe and the Near East to raise support and money. He convinced thousands of ordinary French citizens to invest in the canal company, and though he never won over the British prime minister, Lord Palmerston, he did convince British merchants and businessmen that the canal would benefit them. During years of careful diplomacy, Lesseps neutralized the Ottoman sultan, and with the help of his cousin the Empress Eugénie, he won the backing of the emperor of France, Napoleon III.
By the time the canal was completed, it had become a symbol of progress and a sign that East and West could coexist and cooperate, and Lesseps was lionized throughout Europe as a hero of the industrial age. But it was not smooth sailing all the way: the company relied heavily on forced labor, diplomatic intrigues continued to the very end, and technical and financial obstacles constantly threatened the project’s completion.
The creation of the Suez Canal captured the imagination of the world. It was heralded as a symbol of progress that would unite nations, but its legacy is mixed. It was supposed to strengthen the Middle East and bridge cultures; instead the gap widened, and the region remains a flash point for conflict. Parting the Desert is both a transporting narrative and a meditation on the origins of the modern Middle East.
- Sales Rank: #1537097 in Books
- Published on: 2003-05-20
- Released on: 2003-05-20
- Format: Deckle Edge
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.25" h x .91" w x 6.25" l, 1.43 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 320 pages
From Publishers Weekly
In an ably researched and well-told account, Karabell (The Last Campaign) chronicles the origins and legacy of one of the greatest undertakings of the 19th century. While the construction of the Suez Canal across a 100-mile stretch of arid Egypt to link the Mediterranean and Red seas was largely (and rightly) seen as a marvel of engineering and planning, Karabell demonstrates that the political machinations behind the project were just as intricate and daunting. European involvement in the canal stretched back to Napoleon, but the two main players in its execution were the French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps and the Egyptian ruler Muhammad Said. The book skillfully outlines the intrigue among their supporters and detractors without getting bogged down in meticulous detail, and it does the same for the exacting creation of the canal itself. But Karabell does an especially fine job of balancing the ballyhoo and symbolic grandeur of what the canal was meant to be and the more or less forgotten entity it has become. He quotes de Lesseps as saying to Said, "'The names of the Egyptian sovereigns who erected the Pyramids, those useless monuments of human pride, will be ignored. The name of the Prince who will have opened the grand canal through Suez will be blessed century after century for posterity.'" Ultimately, he was wrong, and the canal became a mixed blessing for Egypt at best. But Karabell's book is more sensitive than damning, and it provides a fascinating look at an early attempt to bridge East and West at a time when such history is particularly relevant.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* A middle-aged ex-diplomat rusticating in the French countryside hardly sounds like someone who could bring off an audacious feat of engineering, but such was the case with Ferdinand de Lesseps. Known to readers of David McCullough's classic The Path between the Seas (1977), de Lesseps later came to grief attempting to carve a canal through Panama. In depicting de Lesseps' glory days on the Suez Canal, Karabell proves just as able a raconteur as McCullough, as he thematically contrasts the dreams invested in the construction of the Suez Canal with its fading importance today. Long gone, Karabell notes, is a statue of de Lesseps that overlooked his creation; vanished, too, is the dreamy romanticism invested in all things Egyptian by French artistic and progressive thought in the first half of the 1800s. Although de Lesseps was fascinated with the exotic, Karabell appraises him as a salesman who viewed the canal as a way to etch his name in history. Because de Lesseps' personal connections to potentates were crucial to his success, Karabell amplifies his story with figures from the worlds of diplomacy, finance, and French and Egyptian societies. A brilliant narrative. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“Karabell writes with the authority and power of a gifted arabist…an entirely splendid book.” --Simon Winchester, The New York Times Book Review
“Karabell tells the story of a crucial development in the history of the modern world with economy and lively grace.” --Los Angeles Times
“Zachary Karabell reminds us in this concise and pleasantly digressive history [that] the waterway’s creation stirred great passions in the 19th century.”–The Economist
“Read Karabell’s wonderfully written book to remember the dreams people had about the Middle East–and what became of them.”– Newsweek
"A fascinating saga: of diplomacy involving primarily the French and the Egyptians, of raising gigantic sums of money, of overcoming massive geographical and technological obstacles long before the invention of mechanized earth-moving equipment. . . . The business aspects sometimes seem as if they are ripped from last month's headlines." —Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
“A rich and engaging narrative of one of the greatest engineering feats of the nineteenth century [with] resonance beyond its time.” —Alexander Stille, author of The Future of the Past
“An absorbing, well-written narrative. . . . [Karabell gives] dimension to the personalities, eccentricities and strengths of key figures. . . . [A] fascinating account.” —San Antonio Express-News
“Karabell tells his story elegantly . . . distilling a large cast spread across several countries into a manageable one. . . . A gifted crafter of sentences, Karabell seldom wastes a sentence as he offers one well-chosen anecdote after another that sheds light on the greater drama of this important and historic construction project.” —Charleston Gazette
“A fascinating, epic, elegiac story. Zachary Karabell’s account of the political intrigue, quixotic dreamers, and engineering genius that led to the construction of the Suez Canal vividly brings to life one of the underappreciated marvels of the modern world. The book is a triumph of history and art.” —Bruce Feiler, author of Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths
“A tale shot through with . . . unexpected twists. . . . Karabell tells his story concisely and with narrative skill, peppering the account with many wry anecdotes.” —The Jerusalem Post
“Engrossing. . . . As accessible and vividly written as a novel. . . . It maintains a page-turning pace. Superbly researched, it is a volume to keep.” —The Sunday Times
“Zachary Karabell has written an absorbing narrative. . . . [He] traces with skill the complex diplomatic and engineering feat. . . . [and] prompts reflections . . . about the futility of human effort and the evanescence of glory.” —Times Literary Supplement
“Excellent and well-written. . . . A riveting story, and Karabell tells it handsomely. . . . An exceptional book, one of the best of its kind I have read. . . . A splendid account of a great project.” —Sunday Herald
“Well-researched and very well-written . . . The tens of thousands of the Egyptian fellahin peasantry who dug the canal . . . did indeed part the desert, and their story cannot have been better told than by this fine book.” —The Sunday Telegraph (London)
“Fascinating. . . . Elegiac. . . . Parting the Desert is an excellent story, skillfully told. Even those who are bored to tears by canals, whose eyes glaze over at the first mention of engineering, will find themselves, as this reader did, racing through it.” —Justin Marozzi, Literary Review
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Most helpful customer reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful.
POLITICS & ENGINEERING: Building the Suez Canal
By E. E Pofahl
Arguably building the Suez Canal presented political challenges and problems as great as the engineering problems. The author, Zachary Karabell, does an excellent job outlining the political challenges encountered in planning and constructing the canal noting "The states of Europe competed over it; the Ottoman Empire tried to prevent its construction; and later, the armies of the modern Middle East destroyed the cities along its banks." The text observes, "The canal was not just a monumental act of engineering and organization. It was the culmination of ideals and ambitions, and a symbol of all that the culture of the 19th century held dear. It was a hundred-mile-long trench that signaled the triumph of science, the creativity of mankind, and the beginning of a wonderful future."
Incredibly, in 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte when occupying Alexandria, Egypt investigated digging a canal connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas. The author narrates the many political differences over a proposed canal especially the opposition of Britain. In 1854, Ferdinand de Lesseps (out of a government job) adopted and promoted the dream of building the Suez Canal but he was strongly opposed by a group of French socialist technocrats and the British government. The book notes "Most of Egypt was desert and had been ruled for centuries by Turkish lords." In November 1854, the viceroy of Egypt, Said Pasha, who "...was intoxicated by the promise of an Egypt restored to prominence and no longer under the control of the Ottoman Empire..." in 1854 gave a written concession to Lesseps to build a canal updating the concession in 1856. Lesseps wanted to follow a direct route, but canal opponents used the route argument to delay or defeat the project.
The Suez Canal Company was to be a publicly held stock company. When the stock subscription was under subscribed in November 1858, Said Pasha had Egypt cover the shortfall. As of January 1859, a company existed and work began under an unrealistic schedule. Political problems and maneuvering continued until French Emperor Napoleon III ruled in favor of Lesseps on the latest challenges.
The Suez Canal was being built during a time of technological change when steam power was replacing muscle power. With a completion date of November 1869, at the end of 1867 less than half of the canal's excavation was finished. The solution was to mechanize with nearly three hundred special steam powered machines being build for canal work. When the last construction dike was broken on August 15, 1869, the seas flowed quietly and peacefully together putting to rest the age-old fears that something terrible would happen when the waters from the Mediterranean and Red Sea mingled. On November 16 about sixty ships left Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea, and the next day at Ismailia a festive carnival began as the first transit of the Suez Canal was completed. Ironically in 1875, Britain (the canal's greatest critic) purchased 44 percent of the Suez Canal Company's stock becoming the largest single stockholder; and by the beginning of the twentieth century, the Suez Canal had become the fulcrum of the British Empire.
The canals' dream that animated the rulers of Egypt and France, as well as the engineers and the shareholders, that the East and West would be joined, and the union of the two seas and the two worlds would allow the energies of mankind to flourish was never realized. In 1956 Egypt, under Colonel Gamal Nasser,nationalized the canal and during the ensuing 1956 war the canal was blocked with sunken ships. Today the canal still functions but pipelines have taken away a large portion of the canal's business. The Suez Canal remains "a testament to nineteenth-century will and ingenuity. But its legacy for Egypt is a different and sadder story."
The book ends stating "Visionaries created the canal, but others actually built it.... The Suez Canal was the greatest feat of organization and engineering of its day, and it served,for a brief moment, as a symbol of all that was right in the world.... As a vision, it was beautiful and inspiring; as a reality, it has sometimes been a blessing, and usually not. In its prime, it offered, at best, power and wealth.
This is a very readable account and provides useful background on 21st century politics in the Middle East. A better map of the canal route would be helpful. My main criticism is that greater coverage of the engineering challenges/resolutions was not given as it was also an engineering marvel in its day.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
A man, a plan, a canal
By Frank J. Konopka
This is a very well-written book on the history of the Suez Canal, from the inception of the idea for its digging until today. There's not a lot of description of the actual work that was involved; we are primarily given the political and diplomatic machinations that were involved in the beginning of the work, and continuing until it opened, and beyond. There are thumbnail sketches of the major players, and they were quite interesting. There are also occasional mistakes of fact in the book, which should have been caught by a good editor. The first time Napoleon III is introduced, he's called Napoleon's son, but later in the book he is correctly identified as his nephew. Also, the date for the conquest of Constantinople is given as two different years in two different places. They didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book, but they were distracting nevertheless. Not knowing a lot about the history involved in the Suez Canal, I enjoyed this book very much.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Only Half a Book
By John Durkee
I liked this book, because I didn't know anything about this project and wanted to know more about politics and technology in the Middle East.
Unfortunately, I got only the former.
Author Karabell spends most of the book on the history of Egypt in the 19th century focusing on political relationships between France, Turkey, Ferdinand De Lesseps (FDL), and Egypt. FDL, France's emperor Napoleon, and the three leaders of Egypt in the mid 1850s are the major characters. Their interplay and fate is Karabell's story.
FDL was driven to be someone in his time, and the Suez Canal made him someone in the late 1800s. It was his political skill, connections, and drive to avoid failure which brought the project to fruition. What I hadn't known, and was well covered by Karabell was the fate of the canal -- considering what country opposed it from the beginning to the end (read the book to know more).
What I didn't get from this book was any detailed sense of the technical details of the creation of the canal. This was a main interest because I am an engineer. I doubt Karabell spent 1,000 words in 200+ pages on technical details. The other thing I didn't get from this book was a useful map to follow what was done where. Yes, there is an apparently complete overall map. But it's printed in a non-contrasty way which makes it hard to read anything. I used Google Maps to find places which were mentioned in the book about which I was reading.
In summary, this is a useful book -- worth reading for the political context. But it's nearly silent about technology and hard to follow without a good map. Minus 1 star for each defect.
Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal, by Zachary Karabell PDF
Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal, by Zachary Karabell EPub
Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal, by Zachary Karabell Doc
Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal, by Zachary Karabell iBooks
Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal, by Zachary Karabell rtf
Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal, by Zachary Karabell Mobipocket
Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal, by Zachary Karabell Kindle
No comments:
Post a Comment