"When the British, desperate to sabotage the project, successfully pressured the Sultan to abolish the corvée — the system of forced Egyptian labor — the project teetered on the brink of collapse. Thousands of men vanished from the pits overnight. De Lesseps pivoted. If men were taken from him, he would build machines. He oversaw the deployment of a new kind of industrial army: colossal, custom-built steam dredges and long-chambered elevators that could lift 2,000 cubic meters of earth in a single day. These were the monsters of the nineteenth century, mechanical titans that groaned and hissed as they clawed the canal out of the desert floor, moving a total of 75 million cubic meters of earth — enough to build a wall around the entire coast of France."
This paragraph seems like one of the best arguments for the minimum wage I have ever heard.
An excellent book and you did good job capturing the lead in. Alas, he reached too far with Panama, but at least he tried and got folks thinking it could be done. I suggest Elon Musk as the modern de Lesseps.
Exceptional writing 👏!
thank you sir!
Magnificent. We still benefit from the great canal and are so grateful for his vision and energy. Masterful description of a Great Man
"When the British, desperate to sabotage the project, successfully pressured the Sultan to abolish the corvée — the system of forced Egyptian labor — the project teetered on the brink of collapse. Thousands of men vanished from the pits overnight. De Lesseps pivoted. If men were taken from him, he would build machines. He oversaw the deployment of a new kind of industrial army: colossal, custom-built steam dredges and long-chambered elevators that could lift 2,000 cubic meters of earth in a single day. These were the monsters of the nineteenth century, mechanical titans that groaned and hissed as they clawed the canal out of the desert floor, moving a total of 75 million cubic meters of earth — enough to build a wall around the entire coast of France."
This paragraph seems like one of the best arguments for the minimum wage I have ever heard.
An excellent book and you did good job capturing the lead in. Alas, he reached too far with Panama, but at least he tried and got folks thinking it could be done. I suggest Elon Musk as the modern de Lesseps.
I say that in the first para!