Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World"If you only read a handful of nonfiction books this year, [Bananas!] is among your recommended five portions." --The Observer In this gripping exploration of corporate manuevering and subterfuge, Peter Chapman shows how the importer United Fruit set the precedent for the institutionalized power and influence of today's multinational companies. Bananas! is a sharp and lively account of the rise and fall of this infamous company, arguably the most controversial global corporation ever - from the jungles of Costa Rica to the dramatic suicide of its CEO, who leapt from an office on the forty-fourth floor of the Pan Am building in New York City. From the marketing of the banana as the first fast food, to the company's involvement in an invasion of Honduras, the Bay of Pigs crisis, and a bloody coup in Guatemala, Chapman weaves a dramatic tale of big business, political deceit, and outright violence to show how one company wreaked havoc in the "banana republics" of Central America, and how terrifyingly similar the age of United Fruit is to our age of rapid globalization. |
Contents
From the Memory of Men | 1 |
Lament for a Dying Fruit | 13 |
Roots of Empire | 25 |
Copyright | |
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Allen Dulles ambassador anti-trust Arbenz areas Atlantic coast Banana Land banana republic Bay of Pigs Bernays big companies Big Mike boat Boston British Cabot called capital Caribbean Central America century Chiquita claimed Colombia Communism Communists company store company's corporate Costa Rica coup Cuba Cuban Department dollars Edward Bernays Estrada Cabrera Fidel Castro Figueres forces Guatemala Guevara Honduras Howard Hunt hundred idea invasion island Jamaicans John Foster Dulles journalists jungle labour late later Latin America Limón Minor Keith multi-national Nicaragua Nixon Organisation Orleans Pacific Panama Canal Peurifoy President Preston Puerto Puerto Cortés Quiriguá railroad railway regime Rica's Rican Roosevelt Salvador Sam Zemurray Santa Marta ships Somoza soon stems Tegucigalpa things tion took tropical turned United Fruit Company United Fruit plantation United Fruit's old US's wanted Washington White Fleet Wilson workers wrote Zemurray Zemurray's