Most knowledge of the Panama Canal was acquired in a haze of junior high school history -- somewhere alongside "trust busting" and the "bully pulpit" in the unit on Teddy Roosevelt and turn-of-the-century American confidence.

There was a spasm of interest in the canal 31 years ago, when the United States agreed to turn it -- along with the surrounding territory -- over to Panama, and also a flicker of notice in 1999 when the actual handover occurred. Beyond that, it's been pretty much out of sight, out of mind -- except on the political fringes, where some have tried to argue that Senator John McCain's birth in the Canal Zone disqualifies him from seeking the presidency.

Fortunately, the Central American-born and British-educated author Matthew Parker missed out on the standard-issue, stultifying American tutorial. And, thus, we have his book Panama Fever, which is not only an absolutely gripping account of the canal's conception and construction but also notice that a brilliant new popular historian has arrived on the scene.

Popular, in this sense, means readable and committed to narrative storytelling, which Parker most assuredly is. He also happens to be an author of intelligence and deep humanity -- two qualities that don't always go hand-in-hand -- which makes Panama Fever much more than its rather relentless subtitle would suggest: The Epic Story of One of the Greatest Human Achievements of All Time -- the Building of the Panama Canal.

In fact, the essence of Parker's rather remarkable achievement in this altogether entertaining history is to show just how much more than an engineering triumph the construction of the canal really was -- and, indeed, continues to be. Certainly, even in this era of so-called super-ships that are too large to use its locks, the canal remains a vital economic link.

Nearly one million ships have traversed it since it opened 93 years ago, and today fully 5 percent of all the world's seagoing commerce and 12 percent of all American shipping still moves through the canal. There's a lovely symmetry in those statistics, because one of the things Parker's history makes clear is that the canal's origins reach to the very beginnings of Spanish exploration of the New World. The first to attempt at a realization of the dream was by the Frenchman, Ferdinand de Lesseps. He failed.

The Americans did succeed, but at a cost of about 250,000 lives. Most of those dead were black workers from Jamaica and Barbados.

Indeed, the U.S. effort succeeded where the French failed not only because of public financing and superior technology but also because of an epic medical/scientific defeat of tropical diseases.

This is exemplary history, vigorously told.

Panama Fever: The Epic Story of One of the Greatest Human Achievements of All Time -- the Building of the Panama Canal

By Matthew Parker

(Doubleday, $34)