Parker, Matthew. Panama fever; the epic story of one of the greatest human achievements of all time--the building of the Panama Canal.

PARKER, Matthew. Panama fever; the epic story of one of the greatest human achievements of all time--the building of the Panama Canal. Read by William Dufris. 14 cds. 17.75 hrs. BBCAudiobooks America. 2008. 978-0-7927-5263-9. $115.95. Vinyl; content, author, reader notes. SA

Parker's exhaustive history begins with a mention of Balboa and Magellan in the 1500s, moves to the interest of Jefferson and Franklin in the 1700s, gets up a head of steam with the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 and is impelled by the discovery of gold in California in 1848. Ferdinand de Lesseps, architect of the Suez Canal, began a sea-level canal with no locks in Panama in the 1880s, only to be defeated by disease, poor planning and a lack of money. Americans had better luck in 1904 with government funding, a military presence, the defeat of yellow fever, better equipment and superior engineering under the leadership of George Goethals. The canal opened officially in 1914 just as WW I was beginning. Parker covers the years of construction in detail, including the personal stories of workers and their families. The history of the canal is full of racism (including a strict apartheid system under the Americans), violence, political corruption and rebellions, worker exploitation, injuries and dismemberments, illness, thousands of deaths, a reparation payment of $25 million to Colombia in 1921 and the return of the canal to Panama in 1999. The work still continues with the beginning of larger locks in 2007. Narrator Dufris does this epic tale justice with an intelligent, sympathetic reading which captures the drama of the story. Janet Julian, English Teacher (retired), Grafton, MA