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    "label": "Review of The Canal Builders: Making America's Empire at the Panama Canal by Julie Greene, March 2011",
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    "title": "Review of The Canal Builders: Making America's Empire at the Panama Canal by Julie Greene, March 2011",
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    "ocrText": "Alexander Missal\ndamaging of all, unfortunate engineering\nSeaway to the Future: American\ndecisions\" (26). In 1903 assistance pro-\nSocial Visions and the Construction\nvided by the U.S. government and the\nof the Panama Canal\nAmerican-owned Panama Railroad to the\nMadison: University of Wisconsin Press,\nPanamanian independence movement\n2008, 267 pp., 34 b/w illus. $34.95 (cloth),\nresulted in Panama's independence from\nISBN 9780299229405\nColumbia. The following year the Hay-\nBunau-Varilla Treaty was signed with pro-\nvisions highly favorable to American\nJulie Greene\ninterests.\nThe Canal Builders: Making America's\nThe canal project got off to a rocky\nEmpire at the Panama Canal\nstart. The first chief engineer, John Wal-\nNew York: Penguin Press, 2009, 496 pp., 37\nlace, lasted only one year. During his ten-\nb/w illus. $30 (cloth), ISBN 9781594202018\nure, rumors spread in the United States\nabout cronyism in the ICC and the\nThe story of the Panama Canal's construc-\nemployment of prostitutes for the work-\ntion has been told many times, notably by\ners. Both Missal and Greene credit Theo-\nDavid McCullough in his bestseller The\ndore Roosevelt and his visit to the Canal\nPath Between the Seas (New York: Simon\nZone in 1906 with turning the situation\n& Schuster, 1977). Begun in May 1904,\naround. In particular, both authors argue\nthe forty-mile (64-km) canal was built by\nthat the iconic photograph of Roosevelt in\nthe Isthmian Canal Commission (ICC), a\nhis tropical white suit operating a Bucyrus\ncivilian branch of the U.S. Department of\nsteam shovel was instrumental in aligning\nWar. It was completed by August 1914 at a\npublic opinion behind the canal project.¹\ncost of $352 million. During that decade,\nJohn Stevens, a railroad engineer, was\n150,000 people, mostly West Indians,\nthe second chief engineer for the ICC. He\nworked on the project. What Alexander\nbelieved that the principal problem facing\nMissal, a German journalist with a PhD in\nthe ICC was labor. As Greene relates, Ste-\nAnglo-American History from the Univer-\nvens advocated the use of Chinese work-\nsity of Cologne, and Julie Greene, a pro-\ners, but for various reasons the ICC turned\nfessor of history at the University of\nto West Indians (principally from Jamaica,\nMaryland, have achieved in their books is\nBarbados, and Martinique). Later this\nto add valuable new dimensions to our\nunskilled labor force was augmented by\nunderstanding of the canal's construction\nSpaniards, Italians, and Greeks, recruited\nand reception, and of the daily lives of\nin the belief, widespread among the ICC's\nthose who built it. In Seaway to the Future\nmanagement, that white workers would be\nMissal recaptures the early significance to\nmore productive than the black West Indi-\nAmericans of the canal and Canal Zone-a\nans. White-collar and skilled blue-collar\nstrip of land five miles wide on either side\nworkers were recruited from the United\nof the canal and by 1912 home to 62,000\nStates and paid 25 to 33 percent more than\npeople-by analyzing American books,\nwages at home. To manage this workforce,\nmagazine articles, photographs, and draw-\nthe ICC developed a system of gold and\nings of the era. Greene, in The Canal Build-\nsilver payrolls. The gold roll included\ners, explores social and labor conditions for\nwhite-collar and skilled workers, mostly\nthe workers who built the canal.\nAmericans, paid in U.S. currency, while\nBoth authors provide similar back-\nthose on the silver roll were paid in Pana-\nground information. The attempt to build\nmanian dollars. As Greene points out, the\na canal in Panama began in 1880 with the\ndistinction was not strictly based on race\nFrench Compagnie Universelle du Canal\nbut, rather, \"on class, gender, race and\nInterocéanique, under the direction of\nnationality\" (72). Gradually the gold/silver\nSuez Canal builder Ferdinand de Lesseps.\npayroll system \"hardened into a system of\nThat project was abandoned in 1889, as\nsegregation\n[which] came to shape\nGreene explains, on account of \"persistent\nevery aspect of life in the Zone, from work\ndisease, inadequate technology, insuffi-\nto housing, leisure activities, sexual rela-\ncient funds, high labor turnover, and most\ntionships, and shopping\" (63).\nBOOKS\n121\nHere the interests of Missal and\nelite\" (as quoted by Missal, 136). Missal\noften less than satisfactory. One such effort\nGreene diverge. Missal is primarily inter-\nexplains how Bellamy, like many other\nwas the development of YMCA clubhouses\nested in what the project meant for the\nAmericans, was \"appalled by the transfor-\nthroughout the Canal Zone. Greene\nAmerican people and how their views were\nmation of American cities and the social\nreports that in Gorgona, a machine-shop\naffected by what he calls \"the Panama\ntensions of his age\" (136), and therefore\ntown, worker membership in the YMCA\nauthors.\" By this he means both book\ncelebrated order-the basis of his utopia-\nbegan at 72 percent in 1907 but fell to 44\nauthors, such as Willis John Abbot, whose\nover democracy's perceived potential for\npercent by 1910. The workers turned\nPanama and the Canal in Picture and Prose\nchaos. In Bellamy's utopia, democracy is\ninstead to amusements and diversions oper-\n(1913) sold more than one million copies,\nsacrificed to the order of what he calls a\nating outside the Canal Zone, particularly\nand the authors of articles in popular new\n\"perfect concert of action\" (137). Many\nthe saloons and brothels of Cocoa Grove, a\nmass-circulation American magazines\nAmericans saw the Panama Canal as the\ndistrict of Panama City. Greene describes\nsuch as Cosmopolitan and McClure's. It was\nrealization of Bellamy's utopia. Bellamy's\nhow the tensions among American, Pana-\nthese authors, Missal argues, who gave\n\"perfect concert of action\" was, in fact,\nmanian, and West Indian workers boiled\nreality to the Panama Canal. The Panama\nsimilar to ICC secretary Bishop's descrip-\nover in the Cocoa Grove Riots of 4 July\nauthors, for example, celebrated William\ntion of the Panama Canal project as a\n1912, causing one death and twenty inju-\nGorgas, the medical officer who mini-\n\"perfect operation\" (138). As in Bellamy's\nries. And death inside the Canal Zone was\nmized yellow fever and malaria in the\nutopia, the Panama authors saw in the\nrife. According to official figures, some\nCanal Zone, as \"first of all a success of\nconstruction of the canal the \"elimination\n5,600 workers died in the course of the\nAmerican civilization: through his work,\"\nof private companies,\" the existence of\ncanal's construction, although the actual\none author praised, \"a veritable valley of\n\"great distributing establishments,\" a\ntotal may have been closer to 15,000.\ndeath has been converted into a land of\n\"general dining house in every neighbor-\nGreene does not provide a breakdown of\nhealth and comfort\" (62). By painting por-\nhood,\" and \"much larger incomes\" (136).\nthese deaths but indicates that the leading\ntraits of figures such as Gorgas, the Pan-\nTo most readers of the time, these achieve-\ncauses were pneumonia, nephritis (liver\nama authors sought to demonstrate that\nments seemed to outweigh the loss of\ninflammation), and industrial accidents.\nthe canal was where \"human technology\ndemocratic rights. As in Bellamy's utopia,\nBoth authors are critical of the ICC's social\ntriumphed over nature\" (64). They wrote\nwhere \"the working population had no\npolicies, particularly the treatment of West\nfurther, says Missal, of \"the staggering\nvoting rights\" and \"the state [was] ruled by\nIndian workers. Yet neither author provides\ndimensions of the Panama Canal and the\nan administrative elite\" (136), workers in\na comparison with other contemporary\nwonder of the engineering work\" (122). In\nthe Canal Zone had order but virtually no\nconstruction projects, such as the New\ndeveloping this popular view of the canal,\nconstitutional rights.\nYork Barge Canal (built 1903-1918), which\nthey frequently contrasted American know-\nWhere Missal is interested in how the\nwould permit readers to assess this judg-\nhow with supposed French ineptitude and\nPanama authors portrayed the canal to the\nment more fully.\nmoral inferiority. For example, they\nAmerican population, Greene is interested\nAs Missal's discussion of the Panama\nreported that the French shipped 20,000\nin the workers' perspectives. \"How,\" she\nauthors indicates, most North American\nsnowplows to Panama and that they drank\nasks, \"does looking at the [Panama Canal]\nobservers of the time viewed the project as\nchampagne instead of water-allegations\nconstruction project from the perspective\nutopian in its aims and achievements.\ndenied at the time by high-ranking mem-\nof the workers change our understanding of\nFrom an architectural historian's point of\nbers of the ICC, but nonetheless popular\nthis moment in history?\" (4). Greene\nview, it is disappointing that neither author\nwith the American public.\nexplains that the engineers of the Panama\nincluded much material on the physical\nMost crucially, the Panama authors\nCanal not only engineered a transportation\naspects of that \"utopia,\" such as the ICC's\ndescribed the Canal Zone as a tropical\ncorridor but also a social system that would\narchitectural and city planning efforts. (In\nAmerican Garden of Eden, a utopia; this\nensure order and discipline among the\naddition to building the canal, the ICC\nview became popular and pervasive in the\nworkers and promote the canal's timely\nalso managed the Panama Railroad Cor-\nUnited States. Here both Missal and\ncompletion. The system of gold and silver\nporation-a separate entity also owned by\nGreene raise the specter of Edward Bel-\nrolls, through encouraging competition\nthe U.S. government-and built and\nlamy's best-selling utopian novel of 1888,\namong social and ethnic groups, was one\nmanaged the towns and facilities of the\nLooking Backward, 2000-1887, in which a\nway to achieve this order. The ICC also\nCanal Zone.) Also disappointing, and\ntime traveler from 1887 appears in Boston\nachieved order through such negative mea-\nsomewhat surprising, is the fact that nei-\nin the year 2000.² In the new society of\nsures as blacklisting, anti-loitering laws,\nther author provides a broader discussion\n2000 he finds a \"system of organized pro-\npolice spying, extensive prison punishment,\nof nineteenth-century utopian planning\nduction and distribution\" that has \"elimi-\nand deportation. Unions were opposed and\nschemes or literature beyond Bellamy's\nnated private companies\" and established\nunion organizers deported. Along with\nbook. Moreover, both Greene's and Mis-\n\"great distribution centers.\" \"The work-\nthese measures, the ICC developed amuse-\nsal's books would have benefited from the\ning population has no voting rights\" and\nments and diversions that were intended to\ninclusion of more illustrations. Captions in\n\"the state is ruled by an administrative\nkeep the workers content, yet these were\nboth tend to be minimal and credits for\n122\nJSAH / 70:1, MARCH 2011\nphotographers and delineators are some-\ntimes omitted. While both books include\nthe maps needed to understand the loca-\ntion and layout of the Canal Zone, those in\nGreene's book, drawn by Jeffrey Ward, are\nsuperior. Still, shortcomings aside, Missal's\nand Greene's books present important and\ncomplementary new perspectives on the\nconstruction of the Panama Canal, per-\nspectives not readily available elsewhere.\nROBERT J. KAPSCH\nCenter for Historic Engineering\nand Architecture\nNotes\n1. Roosevelt's trip to Panama marked the first time\na sitting president had left the U.S.\n2. Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward, 2000-1887\n(Boston: Ticknor and Company, 1888).\nBOOKS\n123"
}