Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal FROM THE PUBLISHER
"The Building of the Suez Canal was considered the greatest engineering feat of the nineteenth century, but, as Zachary Karabell shows, it was much more than a marvel of construction. It was a moment when the dreams and hopes of two cultures, several states, and thousands of ordinary people converged to change the face of the earth." "Parting the Desert describes an extraordinary meeting between East and West. The Egyptians hoped the canal would lead to a national renaissance and renewed power in the eastern Mediterranean. The French expected the canal to enhance world trade and advance Western civilization. Napoleon Bonaparte first raised the possibility of building a waterway during his occupation of Egypt in the late eighteenth century. The idea was kept alive by the utopian followers of Saint-Simon and was then taken up by Ferdinand de Lesseps, the energetic, ambitious French diplomat who masterminded the project." "As Karabell points out, Lesseps was often in the right place at the right time, and he had the good luck of forging a friendship with the young Egyptian prince Muhammad Said. In 1854, Said became the ruler of Egypt and granted Lesseps the concession to cut a hundred-mile-long canal across the isthmus of Suez. It would take fifteen years of ceaseless effort before that dream became reality." "A brilliant entrepreneur, Lesseps traveled throughout Europe and the Near East to raise support and money. He convinced thousands of ordinary French citizens to invest in the canal company, and though he never won over the British prime minister, Lord Palmerston, he did convince British merchants and businessmen that the canal would benefit them. During years of careful diplomacy, Lesseps neutralized the Ottoman sultan, and with the help of his cousin the Empress Eugenie, he won the backing of the emperor of France, Napoleon III." "By the time the canal was completed, it had become a symbol of progress and a sign that East and West could coexist and cooperat
FROM THE CRITICS
The New York Times
Karabell writes with the authority and power of a gifted and fascinated Arabist. He tells the story of de Lesseps's vision and integrity, as well as the daring and brio that enabled him to create, in a scant 10 years, a canal that -- whatever its commercial or political realities -- magnificently enabled great seagoing vessels to pass between the dunes, and to pass with a casualness that utterly belied the hard work involved in allowing them to do so. — Simon Winchester
The Los Angeles Times
Karabell deftly weaves much social and economic history of the 19th century into his lively narrative. When work on the canal began in 1859, for instance, it was with pick and shovel, done by the peasantry called Fellahin who were forced into labor by the ancient corvee system. By the time of the canal's grand opening in 1869, much of the work had been done by giant steam shovels. In Parting the Desert, Karabell tells the story of a crucial development in the history of the modern world with economy and a lively grace. — Anthony Day
Publishers Weekly
In an ably researched and well-told account, Karabell (The Last Campaign) chronicles the origins and legacy of one of the greatest undertakings of the 19th century. While the construction of the Suez Canal across a 100-mile stretch of arid Egypt to link the Mediterranean and Red seas was largely (and rightly) seen as a marvel of engineering and planning, Karabell demonstrates that the political machinations behind the project were just as intricate and daunting. European involvement in the canal stretched back to Napoleon, but the two main players in its execution were the French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps and the Egyptian ruler Muhammad Said. The book skillfully outlines the intrigue among their supporters and detractors without getting bogged down in meticulous detail, and it does the same for the exacting creation of the canal itself. But Karabell does an especially fine job of balancing the ballyhoo and symbolic grandeur of what the canal was meant to be and the more or less forgotten entity it has become. He quotes de Lesseps as saying to Said, "'The names of the Egyptian sovereigns who erected the Pyramids, those useless monuments of human pride, will be ignored. The name of the Prince who will have opened the grand canal through Suez will be blessed century after century for posterity.'" Ultimately, he was wrong, and the canal became a mixed blessing for Egypt at best. But Karabell's book is more sensitive than damning, and it provides a fascinating look at an early attempt to bridge East and West at a time when such history is particularly relevant. (May) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Karabell (The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election) has written a thorough and entertaining work on the history of possibly the single most important transportation route completed by humans-the Suez Canal. Finished in 1869, the canal shortened the trip from England to India from 135 days (around Africa) to 45 days. It was not wholeheartedly agreed upon, however, when first proposed by its builder, Ferdinand de Lesseps. But when he rode out to a desert meeting with Egypt's leader Muhammad Said and gave logical (and politically strengthening) reasons for creating the canal, it was all finished but for the building. It would take 15 more years of hard work, salesmanship, inventing new technology, and providing housing, water, and food for the thousands of corvee (forced laborers) before the canal would have its grand opening. As Karabell points out, the canal is no longer as strategic now; many larger modern ships are unable to squeeze through the narrow, shallow waterway. The author is quite comfortable discussing any issue, period, or personality in the canal's history, and many of the references in his 150-title bibliography are from primary sources. This is simply an excellent book that should be purchased by most public and academic libraries. (Photographs not seen.)-James Thorsen, Weaverville, NC Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
The life of French diplomat and engineering mastermind Ferdinand de Lesseps, driving force behind one of the worldﾽs most celebrated canals. Historian Karabell (A Visionary Nation, 2001, etc.) gives Lesseps (1805-94) his due and more in this homage. Karabell characterizes his widely traveled subject as "more a citizen of 19th-century Europe than he was of any one country," though the great canal that he cut through the silt of the Sinai was of course made for the benefit of France and fulfilled one of Napoleonﾽs grand dreams. Karabell takes the Suez, completed in 1869, as one of the worldﾽs grand constructions and more, a work with psychodramatic implications: "Lesseps himself would never have devoted himself so single-mindedly to implementing the project had he not suffered loss. . . . Disgrace and the death of his wife propelled him. His pain became the source of his inspiration, and his ambition, a way to heal himself." That may well be, but the tens of thousands of Africans press-ganged by corvﾽe into making Lessepsﾽs dream a reality were surely troubled by other pains. Granted, Karabell does a reasonably good job of describing the role of forced labor in the work of European empire-building in Africa. He shows, too, the effects of the Suez Canal on regional politics once it was built, extending the story into the 20th century, though giving only cursory treatment of events such as the Suez Crisis of 1956. His treatment of Lesseps himself tends toward the florid, while too often the surrounding narrative plods along datum by datum, point by point. The account suffers overall by comparison with David McCulloughﾽs far better work on canal-building, The Path Between the Seas (1977),which considers Lessepsﾽs later efforts to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. A middling effort, but likely of some interest to students of European imperial history and contemporary geopolitics.
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