Colossal: Engineering the Suez Canal, Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower and Panama Canal - Hardcover

Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1934772763 ISBN 13: 9781934772768

Publisher: Periscope Publishing, 2012

Synopsis

The Suez Canal came first, in 1869; the Panama Canal, last, in 1914; in between in rapid succession, came the Statue of Liberty, 1886, and the Eiffel Tower, 1889. Brilliant, counterintutive, 'Colossal' shows that these awesome monoliths - each usually seen alone as a wonder - have a single, tightly entwined history. Three Frenchmen - Ferdinand de Lesseps, Gustave Eiffel, and Frederic Auguste Bartholdi - were the moving spirits behind the four enterprises. Firsthand experience of the giant monuments of Ancient Egypt shaped the vast ambition of these men. They shared as well as fervid belief that modern materials and technologies would enable them to rival the builder of the Pharoahs. As 'Colossal' follows the paths of the three Frenchmen and the fates of their visionary projects, it tells a spellbinding story that happens also to be an entirely new sociopolitical and cultural history of engineering. The illustrations in this book are fascinating records of building projects that did change he world. Darcy Grigsby is a gifted writer, equally adept at explaining the intricacies of scale drawing and 19th century nationalism. 'Colossal' is a book for the general reader as well as specialists in the history of art and architecture.

About this title

About the Author

Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby is the author of 'Extremeties: Painting Empire in Post-Revolutionary France' and an Associate Professor of the History of Art an Architecture at University of California, Berkeley.

From the Back Cover

Three Frenchmen-Eiffel, Lesseps, and Bartholdi-were the moving spirits behind all four colossi of the Suez Canal, Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower and Panama Canal. This highly original book by Darcy Grigsby, a professor of art history at Berkeley, presents their extraordinary, interlinked history. It begins with Napoleon in Egypt and ends with the building of the Panama Canal, taking in other colossal enterprises along the way. The book brings engineering into the history of art for the first time. Amply illustrated, it crosses between the histories of art, technology, and engineering as well as with cultural and political history.

Edition details

• Publisher: Periscope Publishing
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1934772763
• ISBN 13: 9781934772768
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224