Overview

A failed quest to build the world's first interoceanic canal 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.

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Reviews

""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."" -- ""Kathleen DuVal, author of Native Nations: A Millennium in North America""

Author Information

Jessica Lepler is associate professor of history at the University of New Hampshire. Kristin Price started out doing jazz hands in musical theater, and was shocked to discover that her true calling involved sitting still and telling stories into a mic. Since 2006 she has directed, taught, and recorded thousands of voice-over projects. With a warm, expressive, mid-range voice that can span from late twenties to forties, she specializes in down-to-earth protagonists who work through anything life throws at them. Her heroines help out their friends, build businesses, raise kids, solve mysteries, develop scientific miracles, bust ghosts, and do it all with a sense of humor. Literary booth cats Charlotte and Emily Purronte supervise her recordings (when they feel like it). Fun Facts: she's a pronunciation voice for Dictionary.com and is oddly good at sounding like a robot (you may have heard her as Murphy Brown's digital assistant, VAL, and pairing up with the Minions to tell you where to go on WAZE). She's also a massive geek, enthusiastic baker, and home chef, and mom to an awesome AuDHD kid. You'll find her explaining things; telling stories; solving mysteries in video games; selling you stuff; cheerfully talking at you while you're on hold; and, somewhere out there, as the voice of an interactive doorbell. Special knowledge: Neurodiversity, medical terminology, art history, food, geek stuff.

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