Zone Policeman 88:
A Close Range Study of the Panama Canal and Its Workers

"Zone Policeman 88 " was published by the Century Company in 1913. Our intrepid hero decides to get some first-hand knowledge of one of the greatest projects of the day, the building of the Panama Canal. Harry Franck spent about 6 weeks as a census-taker, followed by three months as a policeman, then wrote this book about his experiences. It is listed as the number three book on the best-seller list for 1913, and has been transcribed into text format by Project Gutenberg. Click to here to go directly to the text of Zone Policeman 88.

The book was so popular that they decided to release a version in England. T. Fisher Unwin, of London and Leipzig, decided the book would do better with a different name, so theycreated a new cover with the title "Things as They Are in Panama"--though the inside pages still say "Zone Policeman 88" in the headers.

In 1970, Arno Press republished "Zone Policeman 88" as part of its series entitled "American Imperialism: Viewpoints of United States Foreign Policy, 1898-1941." The new cover didn't have Harry's name on it at all! This series appears to have been quite a cooperative effort. It was Published by Arno Press & The New York Times Reproduced with the cooperation of the Hoover Institution of War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University Collection Created and Selected by Charles Gregg of Gregg Press Reprinted by permission of the Foreign Policy Association, Inc. AND Reprinted from a copy in the Library of Mrs. Harry A. Franck