Evento

The Panama Canal -- the Dream and the Nightmare -- Prof. John McKinstry

Tuesday, August 29, 2017 10am - 12pm

San Luis Obispo Library Community Room

$5 for LLCC members, $10 for non-members

Register Soon for "Panama Canal" on Brown Paper Tickets

You can join Prof. John McKinstry to take a deeper look into the history, the economics, the French failure, and the eventual American success, of the greatest engineering feat ever attempted!

The distance between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in the narrowest part of Central America is a mere 48 miles. What did take to complete the great water shortcut through that relatively short portion of the Americas that would save thousands of miles of transit?

As it turned out it took a lot, and it was far more difficult than anyone had imagined. As many as 26,000 human lives were lost, thousands of people lost life savings in investments, officials wasted much of the money raised , a large portion of a sovereign nation was stolen, and there was a forceful military occupation of the center of a foreign country for over thirty years. Was it worth it? We'll discuss it.

John McKinstry was Professor of Sociology and Asian Studies, California Polytechnic State University, SLO, 1968-2014. He received three Fulbright Teaching awards to Japan, China and Bulgaria. He is author and co-author of several books about Asian societies.

If you would like to have the password for the member price for this course, go to www.lifelearnerscc.org for information on how you can become a member.