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Title: politically corrrect
Review: I was looking forward to reading an account of this fantastic feat, in the context of the Industrial Revolution, 19th century adventurism, enlightened colonialism. Instead I found myself reading about what a flop the whole thing turned out to be and how insensitive and greedy the Europeans were towards the proud, virtuous and vastly superior-from-a-cultural-standpoint Arabs who happened to be in the place where the ditch was dug. The author doesn't conceal his indifference for the engineering aspects of the canal and is far too eager to show off his knowledge of Middle Eastern culture, of which his relentlessly reverential view is just too PC for me! I am now reading a far more stimulating and satisfying account of Suez contained in "The Path Between the Seas" by David McCullough, the main subject of which is the Panama Canal.
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