Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation - Hardcover

Bernstein, Peter L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393052338 ISBN 13: 9780393052336

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2005

Synopsis

A history of the Erie Canal's construction and subsequent influence on American geography profiles the nation in the first quarter-century of the 1800s, demonstrating how the canal's creation impacted the industrial revolution and citing the contributions of such figures as Washington, Jefferson, and van Buren. 70,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

Begun in 1817 and completed in 1825, the Erie Canal stretches 363 miles across upstate New York from Buffalo on Lake Erie to Albany on the Hudson River. A stunning achievement, the canal was hacked through a densely forested pass in the Appalachian Mountains using only axes, shovels, low-grade explosive power, beasts of burden, and some ingenious devices. The engineers and workers created locks, bypassed rapids and waterfalls, and adjusted to countless changes in elevation. When the canal was completed it became one of the wonders of the world. But the canal was much more than a spectacular construction project; it also served to bind a young United States to itself and the rest of the world in one bold stroke. In this thoroughly absorbing book, Peter Bernstein describes in vivid detail how the Erie Canal helped to shape the United States into a great nation by connecting the eastern seaboard and western expanses of America, as well as propel the Industrial Revolution and stimulate global trade, economics, and immigration. It was so important to the development of the U.S., argues Bernstein, that without the canal the detached western territories "would in all likelihood have broken away" and created another, if not several, separate countries. Manifest Destiny would have been denied.

In telling this gripping tale, the author offers a brief history of canals through the ages, explains the foresight exhibited by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson regarding the need for a waterway to the west, and outlines the political wars, financing challenges, and seemingly endless delays and false starts to the project. He also reveals much about the political landscape of early America through his profiles of the personalities and visionaries who devoted their lives to the project, along with the engineers and surveyors, most of whom had little experience designing or constructing a canal of any kind, much less such a massive undertaking. Wedding of the Waters succeeds brilliantly in bringing this rich story to life. --Shawn Carkonen

About the Author:

Peter L. Bernstein's nine books include the worldwide bestseller Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk. Bernstein is also an economic consultant and publisher of Economics and Portfolio Strategy, a semimonthly letter for institutional investors. He lives in New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0393052338
• ISBN 13: 9780393052336
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352