Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal - Brief Article - Book Review

Contemporary Review, Dec, 2003

Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal. Zachary Karabell. John Murray. [pounds sterling]25.00. 310 pages. ISBN 0-7195-6160-4. This title, first published in the U.S. by Knopf, traces the history of the Suez Canal, the French-led enterprise which changed the nature of world trade. Mr Karabell centres his study on Ferdinand de Lesseps, 'a potent combination of vision, pragmatism and will' who was the moving spirit behind the Canal.

He shows how the 100-mile canal was 'not just a monumental act of engineering and organization' but 'the culmination of ideals and ambitions, and a symbol of all that the culture of the nineteenth century held dear'. By concentrating on Lesseps the writer gives his history a helpful focus. By devoting attention to the background history of French involvement in the idea of a canal, and by tracing its fate after completion, he shows the role it played in British, European and Middle Eastern history until it was bypassed by economic changes. In Mr Karabell's story the canal's building was itself an adventure of imperial greatness which is now part of history.