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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, Peter Chapman shows how the United Fruit Company took bananas from the jungles of Costa Rica to the halls of power in Washington, D.C., with not just clever marketing, but covert CIA operations, bloody coups and brutalised workforces. And how along the way they turned the banana into a blueprint for a new model of unfettered global capitalism: one that serves corporate power at any cost.
“A gripping story of the ebbs and flows of US capitalism”
guardian
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“[An] insightful history of the company … [A] witty, energetic narrative”
new York Times Book Review
“A powerful example from the past … a century-long tale of plunder, bribery, corruption, labour abuse, death squads, military coups and war”
financial Times
“Finely crafted … Chapman’s broad-brush approach to history gives it a vigorous and entertaining narrative drive … Chapman’s achievement is to make us realise what a long and complex moral journey even something as seemingly innocent as a banana has made to our fruit bowls”
Mark Cocker
guardian
“If you only read a handful of non-fiction books this year, [Bananas] is among your recommended five portions”
observer
Peter Chapman
Peter Chapman is a journalist and writer, and a former BBC foreign correspondent in South America. He works for the Financial Times as an editor and writer, and lives in London.