Linked Data Explorerhttp://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/1152411538
Parting the desert the creation of the Suez Canal
Open All Close All
http://schema.org/description
- "The Building of the Suez Canal was considered the greatest engineering feat of the nineteenth century, but, as [the author] 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 ... The creation of the Suez Canal captured the imagination of the world. It was heralded as a symbol of progress that would united nations, but its legacy is mixed. It was supposed to strengthen the Middle East and bridge cultures; instead the gap widened, and the region remains a flash point for conflict. [The book] is both a transporting narrative and a meditation on the origins of the modern Middle east.-Dust jacket."
http://schema.org/genre
- "History"
http://schema.org/name
- "Parting the desert the creation of the Suez Canal"