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. |
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BANANAS!: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World
User Review - KirkusFinancial Times (London) journalist Chapman's insider account of United Fruit as the template for the modern multinational company often gets mired in the minutiae of a century's worth of dubious ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - delirium - LibraryThingA fascinating look at the economic powers that ran the Americas during the nineteenth century. United Fruit was largely responsible for the turmoil that still exists in Latin America today. As Gabriel ... Read full review
Contents
From the Memory of Men | 1 |
Lament for a Dying Fruit | 13 |
Roots of Empire | 25 |
Copyright | |
10 other sections not shown
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Common terms and phrases
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World |
| Author | Peter Chapman |
| Edition | reprint |
| Publisher | Canongate, 2007 |
| ISBN | 1841958816, 9781841958811 |
| Length | 224 pages |
| Subjects | › › Business & Economics / Corporate & Business History Business & Economics / Industries / Agribusiness History / Latin America / South America |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |