Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the WorldOpen Road + Grove/Atlantic, 4 mar 2014 - 252 pagine A lively and insightful cultural history of the coveted yellow fruit, as well as a gripping narrative about the infamous rise and fall of the United Fruit Company. In this compelling history of the United Fruit Company, Financial Times writer Peter Chapman weaves a dramatic tale of big business, deceit, and violence, exploring the origins of arguably one of the most controversial global corporations ever, and the ways in which their pioneering example set the precedent for the institutionalized greed of today’s multinational companies. The story has its source in United Fruit’s nineteenth-century beginnings in the jungles of Costa Rica. What follows is a damning examination of the company’s policies: from the marketing of the banana as the first fast food, to the company’s involvement in an invasion of Honduras, a massacre in Colombia, and a bloody coup in Guatemala. Along the way the company fostered covert links with US power brokers such as Richard Nixon and CIA operative Howard Hunt, manipulated the press, and stoked the revolutionary ire of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. From the exploited banana republics of Central America to the concrete jungle of New York City, Peter Chapman’s Bananas “make[s] us realise what a long and complex moral journey even something as seemingly innocent as a banana has made to our fruit bowls” (The Guardian). |
Sommario
Roots of Empire | |
Monopoly | |
The Banana | |
Taming the Enclave | |
Banana Republics | |
On the Inside | |
Coup | |
Betrayal | |
Decline and Fall | |
Old and Dark Forces | |
United Fruit World | |
Select Bibliography | |
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Allen Dulles ambassador anti-trust Arbenz areas Atlantic coast Banana Land banana republic Bay of Pigs big companies Big Mike Black Bonilla Boston British Cabot called capital Caribbean Central America Chiquita claimed Colombia Communism Communists company store company’s corporate Costa Rica coup Cuba Cuban death squads Department dollars Edward Bernays Estrada Cabrera Fidel Castro Figueres forces García Guatemala Guevara Henry Honduras Howard Hunt idea invasion island Jamaicans John Foster Dulles journalists jungle labour late later Latin America Limón Minor Keith multi-national Nicaragua Nixon organisation Orleans overthrow Panama Canal Panama disease Peurifoy President Preston Puerto Quiriguá railroad railway regime Rica’s Rican Roosevelt Salvador Sam Zemurray Santa Marta ships Somoza stems Tegucigalpa things took trade tropical turned United Fruit Company United Fruit plantation US’s wanted Washington Watergate White Fleet Wilson workers wrote York Zemurray