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The Canal Builders: Making America's Empire at the Panama Canal

When President Theodore Roosevelt seized rights to a stretch of Panama soon after the country gained its independence, many Americans saw it as an act of scandalous land-grabbing. Yet Roosevelt believed the canal could profoundly strengthen American military and commercial power while appearing to be a benevolent project for the benefit of the world. But first it had to be built. When they arrived, they faced harsh and inequitable conditions: Yet Greene reveals how canal workers and their families managed to resist government demands for efficiency at all costs, forcing many officials to revise their policies.

The Canal Builders recounts how the Panama Canal emerged as a positive symbol of American power and became a critical early step towards twentieth-century globalization.

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Yet by chronicling the contributions of canal workers from all over the world, Julie Greene also reminds us of the human dimensions of a project more commonly remembered for its engineering triumphs. Greene shows that engineering challenges paled in comparison to managing the canal's culturally, [End Page ] economically, racially, and linguistically heterogeneous labor force.

The book's nine chapters focus on the relationship between governance and everyday life across different, but intersecting social worlds organized around class, gender, race, and nationality. Chapters 1, 5, and 7 examine the theme of governance. Chapter 1 focuses on the role of the government in shaping the lives of workers.

Greene argues that the scale of the project precipitated "benevolent despotism" and forms of labor discipline that dominated all aspects of life. Chapter 5 focuses on the Zone as a "testing ground" or "living laboratory" to experiment with the form, extent, and virtues of state intervention. Greene shows how Theodore Roosevelt and others successfully reframed the canal project in the progressive language of efficiency, order, and civilization at a time when Americans were increasingly troubled by the nation's role as a rising imperial power.

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Chapter 7 focuses on the Zone government's use of police, courts, and prisons to regulate behavior, particularly drinking, gambling, and sexuality. She argues that officials tried to insulate the enclave from the perceived disorder and moral disease of Panama, but, ultimately, their efforts to create an orderly civilization failed as the tensions and pressures generated by the demands of construction sought an outlet beyond the Zone. Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 6 explore the capacity—and limits—of the U.

View all 4 comments. Mar 13, Louise rated it it was amazing Shelves: Author Greene brings to life the society that developed in the Canal Zone from - and ends with a brief discussion of the aftermath of the Canal's opening. I haven't read McCullough's acclaimed book, but as I understand its content, Greene scopes out a totally different area. She does not focus on the engineering, financing or politics of its inception. Her concern is the life of the people, thousands of people, who built the canal.

Workers came from all over the world. An impressive tab Author Greene brings to life the society that developed in the Canal Zone from - and ends with a brief discussion of the aftermath of the Canal's opening. An impressive table at the end documents this. Why and how did these faceless thousands sign up to go there?

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How did they live? What did they eat and wear? How did they sleep?

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The Canal Builders: Making America's Empire at the Panama Canal by Julie Greene.

What of their families? What about the fatalities? What were the ICC's personnel policies? Greene describes the ICC's structure of gold and silver employees.

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She shows how the resulting caste system affected individuals and how individuals of both the gold and silver groups and others in the outside world felt about it. Beyond the Zone's society, Greene introduces the larger issues. While the ICC's personnel policies are not acceptable today, were they enlightened for their day? What of the people of Panama, how did they feel about this endeavor? Were there movements for change? The book ends with a short discussion of the construction's aftermath, yesterday and today.

While contemporary attitudes and values no longer support a labor system based on race and gender rankings, the author shows how the work stata persists under the radar screen. A cruise ship, flagged in Panama, to whom the US has ceded the territory, embeds a similar system. This is an excellent book.

The Canal Builders: Making America's Empire at the Panama Canal

The author has a big topic but she is disciplined. Her balance between structure and anecdote is excellent. She initiates a discussion on many large topics that loom today. While its topic will not appeal to everyone, I highly recommend this book. Jan 23, Paul Pessolano rated it really liked it. Category — History Publication Date — February 05, There have been many books written about the Panama Canal, most of them have been written concerning the construction of the canal, not about the people who did the work.

Julie Greene has put together a fascinating book that describes who those people were and the trials and tribulations that they went through to bring the canal to fruition. The book details that most of these people were not Americans, that the majority of them came from Caribbean countries such as Jamaica, Barbados, Antigua, Trinidad, and others. She explores the jobs available to them and how these jobs did not equate with the jobs given to Americans. It is not hard to understand that the pay scale was different as were the eating and housing facilities. The work that these people did was back-breaking, filled with danger, and they were worked long hours.

It was not unusual for one to work all day up to their waist in water, going home soaked, and putting the same wet clothes on the next morning. Medical attention was almost non-existent and very little if any compensation was given for injury or death.

A must read for those interested in the construction of the Panama Canal. Aug 20, Karl Schaeffer added it. Excellent read written from the bottoms up view of the worker. Kinda like a "Peoples History of the Panama Canal". Not the history you get taught in school. Interesting treatise on American imperialism, labor relations, progressivism. An interesting note, keeping the canal under US control was one of the first issues used to galvanize conservative activists in the late 70's.

Very dense, detail filled; yet, an enjoyable read. Good job Ms Green! May 06, Sam rated it liked it Shelves: Julie Greene illustrates a particular moment in American history during which empire and paternalism shone down on bastions of US influence and territory scattered around the world. The construction of Panama's canal in a zone carved through the heart of that nascent US ally called forth immense reserves of wealth and expertise as well as a work force drawn from throughout the United States and from as far away as India and Spain.

Greene focuses on the culture and travails of this laboring commu Julie Greene illustrates a particular moment in American history during which empire and paternalism shone down on bastions of US influence and territory scattered around the world. Greene focuses on the culture and travails of this laboring community as well as the policies that policed everything from alcohol to unionization among those working for Uncle Sam.

Racism, paternalism, and a relentless drive towards completion characterized the decade of work on the canal under American control from to With occasional flashes of personal narrative woven into the wider arc of national sentiment and managerial adaptation, The Canal Builders brings into focus a time when America surged beyond its geographic and historical bounds.

The federal government Greene describes was urged to undertake great projects with the responsibility for racially segregating workers, prohibiting alcohol, and building a community embraced by socialists as a model for the world. Greene has finally bestowed comparable recognition on the tens of thousands of men and women who toiled to bring it to completion and the world in which they lived.

Despite the view that the most challenging aspect of building the Panama Canal was the technological and engineering feat, "[m]ore challenging was the task, endlessly discussed and debated by bureaucrats, of determining how best to motivate, manage, and discipline the people of the isthmus" p. Much of the story of Panama Canal workers has not been told.

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Use of deportation and imprisonment for petty crimes to control workers. Both whiteness and U. But the workers resisted in many ways.

The Canal Builders recounts how the Panama Canal emerged as a positive symbol of American power and became a critical early step towards twentieth-century globalization. Her concern is the life of the people, thousands of people, who built the canal. Racism, paternalism, and a relentless drive towards completion characterized the decade of work on the canal under American control from to This is an excellent book. An interesting note, keeping the canal under US control was one of the first issues used to galvanize conservative activists in the late 70's. Very interesting book about the actual workers that built the canal and the conditions they lived and worked in.