Just a quick note of praise for David McCullough’s amazing book The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914.  I actually listened to this book being read by my Kindle over the last many months of driving. I must say it is absolutely astounding in its breadth, its detail, and its ability to maintain interest even though it is so very long.  The Panama Canal, as McCullough tells the story, is a symbol of all that is great and all that lamentable about human society:  the amazing ingenuity and determination, the astounding cruelty and injustice, the capacity to care about human progress, and the raw caprice of political power manipulation.  It’s all here in this one story of the epic construction of this one canal.  A great, great book. Highly recommended.