Prize Possession: The United States Government and the Panama Canal 1903-1979

In this well-researched, scholarly study, Major traces the roots of Washington's Panama Canal policy deep into the 19th century, with emphasis on the rivalry between the U.S. and Britain over the proposed isthmian waterway. The author, who teaches history at the University of Hull in England, describes how the U.S. gained treaty rights to build, maintain and fortify the canal and explains how the canal affected Panamanian politics and economics. Built between 1904 and 1914, the canal performed a dual role as a thoroughfare for maritime commerce and a conduit for seapower. Major argues that the canal more than justified itself in both categories throughout WW II but lost its strategic and economic importance in the postwar years. In a later section of the study he charts the U.S. government's decision to transfer canal authority to Panama via treaties signed in 1977 during the Carter administration. Those treaties stipulated that in 1979 the Canal Zone, created three quarters of a century earlier, would cease to exist. (Oct.)