Reviews in the News: Historical Views
by Judi Baxter, PW Daily for Booksellers -- Publishers Weekly, 2/25/2005
Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation by Peter L. Bernstein (Norton, $24.95) is another scrupulously researched book from the author of the bestselling The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession.
Economics played the biggest role in this incredible undertaking. Consider this: before the canal was built, merchants paid about $100 to ship a ton of flour from Buffalo to New York City, a trip that would take more than a month. After the canal opened, that same ton shipped for $10 and was delivered in less than a week.
New York State governor DeWitt Clinton, a strong proponent of the canal, spoke about it this way: "One great channel, supplying the wants [and] increasing the wealth . . . of each great section of the empire, will form an imperishable cement of connection and indissoluble bond of union."
"Bernstein meticulously traces both the history of canals--the Babylonians built one as far back as 2200 B.C.--and the gradual evolution of the idea for the Erie Canal," writes Chuck Leddy in the San Francisco Chronicle. "One of the most effective advocates for the canal, Jesse Hawley, was a Rochester, N.Y., flour merchant who spent nearly two years in debtors' prison due in part to high shipping costs. While in prison, Hawley penned a brilliant series of essays that educated the public about the many benefits of a canal that would connect the Great Lakes to the Atlantic."
He goes on to say, "While Bernstein is most effective in discussing the canal's far-reaching economic impact, he doesn't neglect the amazing engineering feat the canal represented. It took thousands of workers, earning $12 a month, nine years to dig a 363-mile long ditch across the length of New York state . . . the project's chief engineers were novices--nobody had ever built a canal this large before, but the far exceeded anyone's expectations."
Not everyone favored building the canal. One of the biggest opponents was Martin Van Buren, who felt the project was way too costly and ambitious. The political bickering was fierce, although the actual construction project was relatively smooth.
"Bernstein's economic analysis lucidly conveys the enormous impact of the Erie Canal and explains its crucial role in bringing about the industrial emergence of the young nation. Those interested in the confluence of history and economics will find Bernstein an especially valuable resource," concludes Leddy.
Here is a good question for debate: which war most influenced the course of European history?
Historian Neil Hanson believes it is the attempted sea invasion of Protestant England by Catholic Spain in the summer of 1588, and he puts forth that opinion in his extraordinarily detailed and magnificently researched book, The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The True Story of the Spanish Armada (Knopf, $35).
Though he presents no new major revisions, his research, using previously undiscovered and little known personal papers, diaries and letters, yields "history at its grandest and most exhilarating" says David Walton of the Louisville, Kentucky Courier-Journal.
The author describes the months of planning, mounting and equipping of the great fleet, and the mistakes that were made at each step. He even brings into account the tidal currents around the Isle of Wight, and the wind and currents at each battle site.
The result is a blow-by-blow description of the sea battles themselves, the insiders' view of the political situation of the time and a closer look at the main characters of the battle, including King Philip, Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Francis Drake.
"His reconstructions of the sea battles are clear, insightful and very gripping," states Walton. "Our current fashion of looking at all participants, not just kings and generals, makes this story a particular reminder that history's great moments are sweated out and paid for by many unnamed, unremembered soldiers and sailors, wives and children. Hanson aligns himself with this 'true' story of the Armada, which for the many was a story of being pointlessly hacked by swords and shells, starved, unpaid and abandoned on distant beaches."
