Bernstein - Wedding of the waters: the Erie Canal and the making of a great nation

Wedding of the Waters is a valuable history lesson for peoplei.e., most of uswho have forgotten about the canal or never knew about it in the first place. Bernsteingives the story of the canals conception and construction all the drama it deserves. It is almost impossible to imagine what the country would be like had it not been built. Peter Bernstein does it full justice.

Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book Review

Mr. Bernstein has opened a rich historical vein.

Roger Lowenstein, Wall Street Journal

Mr. Bernstein is at his best in showing how a colorful group of American politicians turned this dream into reality. The book provides a splendid window into early American life, which was as raucously divided then as it is now by class and taste.

The Economist

Wedding of the Waters is an important window into a vital and too often neglected period in the American past.

Walter Russel Mead, Foreign Affairs

A book that takes a sweeping, informed and often amusing look at the characters and visionaries who changed the history of America by digging a ditch across New York State.[Bernstein] does a masterful job of placing the amazing achievement of the canal-builders in historic context, and in describing the Erie Canals often-overlooked impact on not just local history but on the course of the nation and the development of a world economy that was changed by the Eries sudden opening of the American heartland. In this book, he reminds a world that had all but forgotten the Erie Canal that it was, in its day, the engineering wonder of the world, and that it fully deserved its fame.

Mike Vogel, Buffalo News

A riveting account of one of the most amazing technological achievements of all time.

Thomas J. Brady, Philadelphia Inquirer

This is the epic narrative told in Wedding of the Waters , Peter L. Bernsteins engaging new history of the canal: the tale of how an engineering project changed America from colonial backwater to world power. An exciting account of one of Americas grandest civic projects. Bernstein gives us a colorful picture of a great undertaking by a country on the verge of greatness.

Arthur Vaughan, New York Sun

Bernstein does a first-rate job of examining the social, political and economic impact of the canal both as a construction project and as a viable path linking the Atlantic seaboard with the American interior.

Publishers Weekly

An excellent overview of the struggles that went into making the Erie Canal a reality.

Josh Ozersky, Chicago Tribune

Bernsteins economic analysis lucidly conveys the enormous impact of the Erie Canal and explains its crucial role in bringing about the industrial emergence of the young nation. Those interested in the confluence of history and economics will find Bernstein an especially valuable resource.

Chuck Leddy, San Francisco Chronicle

One corner of the great American panorama enlarged to highlight starry-eyed visionaries, political machinations, indefatigable ingenuity, and cockeyed optimism.

Kirkus Reviews

Engrossing. Recounting the construction of the Erie Canal, the 363-mile ditch that connected the Western US territories to New York and, by extension, Europe and the world, the tale merits a place among the popular classics of American economic history.

Stephen Schurr, Financial Times

Bernsteins deft writing and deep understanding of global economic history makes Wedding of the Waters not just a convincing brief for the projects importance but a fun read as well.

Nanette Byrnes, BusinessWeek

The story behind the canals construction is a narrative of political intrigue, bold vision and backbreaking work. And it all comes to life in Peter L. Bernsteins epic history of the canal. Bernstein does a fabulous job of reminding us just how important Clintons ditch was to the development of the city, the state and indeed the nation.

Terry Golway, New York Post

This is a wonderful story, an anodyne for our time.

Joe Mysak, Bloomberg.com

For every stripe of readerhistory buff, news junkie, novel-devourer Wedding of the Waters will be a satisfying experience. Gracefully written, rich in anecdote and fact, its a book to be savored, talked about, and kept.

Ann La Farge, The Independent

The story, told by Peter L. Bernstein in his new book, Wedding of the Waters , isnt unknown, of course, but Bernstein freshens it up by setting it within the larger saga of a young nation striving to find its way.

Wayne Curtis, Preservation

In this latest work, Bernstein explains complicated subjects in digestible and delightful terms. What results is a brief history of the Erie Canal thats neither too exhaustive nor too shallow.

Matthew Lubanko, Hartford Courant

[Bernstein] explains the economic and financial aspects in a way that even Iusually baffled by these mysteriescould understand.

Mark Dunkelman, Providence Journal

PREVIOUS BOOKS BY PETER L. BERNSTEIN

The Price of Prosperity

A Primer on Government Spending (with Robert Heilbroner)

A Primer on Money, Banking, and Gold

Economist on Wall Street

The Debt and the Deficit (with Robert Heilbroner)

Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk

The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession