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The Canal That Ate a Country is a gripping historical narrative that unveils one of the greatest financial and political scandals of the 19th century—the catastrophic French attempt to build the Panama Canal. What began as a grand vision of global engineering and commerce, led by the famed Ferdinand de Lesseps of Suez Canal fame, quickly unraveled into a quagmire of disease, corruption, and national disgrace.
From the fever-ridden jungles of Central America to the gilded halls of Parisian finance, this book explores how hubris, bribery, and incompetence collided in a tragedy of international scale. The project cost over 800,000 investors their life savings, toppled ministers, and sparked an anti-Semitic and anti-republican backlash that would shape French politics for decades.
With the pace of a thriller and the depth of serious history, The Canal That Ate a Country uncovers how a failed ditch became a symbol of imperial overreach and financial greed—long before America’s eventual success with the canal. It's a story of technological ambition derailed by political rot, of exotic disease and deadly oversight, and of the hidden costs of progress.
Perfect for fans of Erik Larson, Ron Chernow, and anyone fascinated by the complex interplay of engineering, empire, and economics, this book lays bare how one canal almost consumed an entire nation.