Author: Marixa Lasso Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674984447 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 353
Book Description
The Panama Canal's untold history—from the Panamanian point of view. Sleuth and scholar Marixa Lasso recounts how the canal’s American builders displaced 40,000 residents and erased entire towns in the guise of bringing modernity to the tropics. The Panama Canal set a new course for the modern development of Central America. Cutting a convenient path from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans, it hastened the currents of trade and migration that were already reshaping the Western hemisphere. Yet the waterway was built at considerable cost to a way of life that had characterized the region for centuries. In Erased, Marixa Lasso recovers the history of the Panamanian cities and towns that once formed the backbone of the republic. Drawing on vast and previously untapped archival sources and personal recollections, Lasso describes the canal’s displacement of peasants, homeowners, and shop owners, and chronicles the destruction of a centuries-old commercial culture and environment. On completion of the canal, the United States engineered a tropical idyll to replace the lost cities and towns—a space miraculously cleansed of poverty, unemployment, and people—which served as a convenient backdrop to the manicured suburbs built exclusively for Americans. By restoring the sounds, sights, and stories of a world wiped clean by U.S. commerce and political ambition, Lasso compellingly pushes back against a triumphalist narrative that erases the contribution of Latin America to its own history.
Author: William J. Jorden Publisher: University of Texas Press ISBN: 0292718306 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 1175
Book Description
“This magnificent diplomatic memoir-history by the American ambassador to Panama at the time should be required reading for every diplomat . . . A classic.” —Foreign Affairs The Panama Canal Treaties of 1977 were the most significant foreign policy achievement of the Carter administration. Most Latin American nations had regarded the 1903 treaty and its later minor modifications as vestiges of “American colonialism” and obstacles to any long-term, stable relationship with the United States. Hence, at a time when conflicts were mushrooming in Central America, the significance of the new Panama treaties cannot be overestimated. Former Ambassador to Panama William J. Jorden has provided the definitive account of the long and often contentious negotiations that produced those treaties. It is a vividly written reconstruction of the complicated process that began in 1964 and ended with ratification of the new pacts in 1978. Based on his personal involvement behind the scenes in the White House (1972–1974) and in the United States Embassy in Panama (1974–1978), Jorden has produced a unique living history. Access to documents and the personalities of both governments and, equally important, Jorden’s personal recollections of participants on both sides make this historical study an incomparable document of U. S. foreign relations. In sum, this is a history, a handbook on diplomacy, a course in government, and a revelation of foreign policy in action, all based on a fascinating and controversial episode in the US experience. “Jordan’s closely knit account of those negotiations brings the whole question of colonialism into stark focus . . . a vivid account of diplomacy in action.” —The Christian Science Monitor
Author: Noel Maurer Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 0691248079 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 440
Book Description
An incisive economic and political history of the Panama Canal On August 15, 1914, the Panama Canal officially opened for business, forever changing the face of global trade and military power, as well as the role of the United States on the world stage. The Canal's creation is often seen as an example of U.S. triumphalism, but Noel Maurer and Carlos Yu reveal a more complex story. Examining the Canal's influence on Panama, the United States, and the world, The Big Ditch deftly chronicles the economic and political history of the Canal, from Spain's earliest proposals in 1529 through the final handover of the Canal to Panama on December 31, 1999, to the present day. The authors show that the Canal produced great economic dividends for the first quarter-century following its opening, despite massive cost overruns and delays. Relying on geographical advantage and military might, the United States captured most of these benefits. By the 1970s, however, when the Carter administration negotiated the eventual turnover of the Canal back to Panama, the strategic and economic value of the Canal had disappeared. And yet, contrary to skeptics who believed it was impossible for a fledgling nation plagued by corruption to manage the Canal, when the Panamanians finally had control, they switched the Canal from a public utility to a for-profit corporation, ultimately running it better than their northern patrons. A remarkable tale, The Big Ditch offers vital lessons about the impact of large-scale infrastructure projects, American overseas interventions on institutional development, and the ability of governments to run companies effectively.
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries Publisher: ISBN: Category : Panama Canal Treaties Languages : en Pages : 192
Author: Ovidio Diaz-Espino Publisher: Primedia E-launch LLC ISBN: 0990552128 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 156
Book Description
How Wall Street Created a Nation: J.P. Morgan, Teddy Roosevelt, and the Panama Canal narrates the dramatic and gripping account of the beginnings of the Panama Canal led by a group of Wall Street speculators with the help of Teddy Roosevelt’s government. The result of four years of research, the book offers the real story of how the United States obtained the rights to build the Canal through financial speculation, fraud, and an international conspiracy that brought down a French republic and a Colombian government, created the Republic of Panama, rocked the invincible President Roosevelt with corruption scandals, and gave birth to U.S. imperialism in Latin America.
Author: Margarita Engle Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ISBN: 0544109414 Category : Juvenile Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 275
Book Description
As the Panama Canal turns one hundred, Newbery Honor winner Margarita Engle tells the story of its creation in this powerful new YA historical novel in verse.
Author: Mark Falcoff Publisher: A E I Press ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 192
Book Description
This book focuses on Panama mismanagement of the U.S. properties it received and its cavalier disregard of environmental considerations crucial to the efficient operation of the canal.
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Separation of Powers Publisher: ISBN: Category : Panama Canal Treaties Languages : en Pages : 2352
Author: Marixa Lasso
Author: Michael L. Conniff
Author: William J. Jorden
Author: Noel Maurer
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries
Author: Ovidio Diaz-Espino
Author: Margarita Engle
Author: Mark Falcoff
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Separation of Powers
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on International Relations