Bananas!: How The United Fruit Company Shaped the World

I picked up this book from my local library while pursuing the new political books on the shelves. I wasn't sure what to expect. I've never been one to read history books. I've tried recently and either they are too academic and free of any sort of narrative force (White Protestant Nation by Allan J. Lichtman) or they are too wishy-washily middle brow (The Story of Psychology by Morton Hunt).

After reading 50 pages or so I was struck by how much narrative drive this book has. It's very exciting and the I was left wanting to know what happens next every time I put the book aside. Unfortunately, there are no footnotes or endnotes and the story is largely undocumented. We do not know exactly where the author, Peter Chapman got his information. I guess the failure of a book that is so focused on narrative is the give and take of leaving out documented specifics in favor of shaping the story.

With that being said, I must admit that I was enraptured by Chapman's Bananas. He got away with, until the final chapter, what I imagine is hard work for someone so opposed to multi-national corporations. He was able to humanize all the players, including Minor Keith, and and Samuel Zemurray without a lot of false moralizing. In fact, until the end of the books it is not a moral polemic on that evils of a multi national. It is mostly concerned with the competing interests that forged the way for multi-nationals to take hold. I was struck by how even handed he was, explaining instead of deriding, all the the competing interests that made the story what it was.

Throughout reading this books I couldn't help but think about my own identity, how it has shaped my outlook and how precarious it is. I feel safe, living in America under certain stable conditions, but as Chapman points out at the end of the book, with mutli-nationals winning the hearts and minds of the global elite living in the "United Fruit world of jungle capitalism" my safety isn't as secure as I tend to feel it is, with such a privileged background. My privileges and safety could be taken away at the whims of global capitalism, much like the workers in Central America.

The end of the book is where Chapman philosophizes about his point in telling the story, and it is an interesting one. This is the company that is the mold for multi-nationals across the world. Although besides the point of the book, but I would have rather he painted a more complex picture in the final chapter besides "The World Trade Organization Won." I'm sure there are competing interests inside and outside the WTO that shape and mold what is going on in the world. The picture he painted of The United Fruit Company was so complicated and messy that to end the book with such an uncomplicated view of the world seemed out of place in an otherwise complicated narrative.

So eye opening about how the United Fruit Company shaped the economic growth of so much of Latin America.

This is a very readable book, written by a journalist who actually met and interviewed many of the characters in this history. It also gives a clear picture of how various greedy people and groups manipulate, control and destroy what they touch.

I highly recommend this look at United Fruit and how they shaped the modern corporate agenda.

A succinct, fascinatinating read about the prototypical multi-national corporation, full of juicy historical facts.
If only the CEOs of 'Big Oil' would follow Eli Black's lead, out the window.

Lo leí hace muchos años atras, como una asignación de clase de Español en Primer Año de Secundaria.

Recuerdo que trataba sobre las bananeras y la vida que llevaban los obreros en los plantíos de bananos. Así como el trato que recibían de parte de los capataces y los dueños de las grandes compañias.

Sirve como para cultura general, para conocer un poco de hisitoria de estas empresas, como llegaron a tener tales producciones y renombre. Por otra parte la historia contada de parte de los campesinos o clase oprimida.

Saludos,

Lizette Medrano C.

Intersting history of the United Fruit Company, but utterly mauled by Chapman. Clumsy, self serving, and just badly written. I really wanted more from this book than Chapman's incessant rants about the abuses of unbridled capitalism. Unsubstantiated claims, accusations, and rumors do not make the case in this highly biased, rambling, socialist hit-piece. Could (should) have been much better.

Living in Guatemala of course that I'm biased ... but this book really dwells too much on how the United Fruit Co is the source of all evil but doesn't come up with all the hard facts. For example, it never mentions that Arbenz' government was to receive arms from the Czech Republic, the OAS meetings, etc etc ... Actually it was a boring read.

Although there is a fair amount of minutiae, that can, at times, bog things down, it's still an intriguing look into corporate colonialism.

after reading barbara kingsolver's book "animal, vegetable, miracle" i was curious about the banana, a fruit that we all eat yet is one that must be shipped thousands of miles to be consumed, hardly ecologically sound. this book delves into the history of the banana and the united fruit company, a corporate monopoly which not only controlled the production of the banana but overthrew democratically elected governments, exploited workers and destroyed land in their pursuit of a profit. i will never eat bananas again...

a fascinating history, both of how business shapes politics, and how the banana become thoroughly commodified. Of particular interest since the very wealthy daughter of the founder of United Fruit lived in the town I grew up in on the Massachusetts North Shore.