Customer Reviews

Bananas!: How The United Fruit Company Shaped the World

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After reading Dan Koeppel's book Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, I was so interested in the topic that I ordered Chapman's book Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped The World. I was thoroughly disappointed by Chapman. Koeppel was organized and entertaining. Chapman was unorganized and unsubstantial. Buy Koeppel's book skip Chapman's.

Peter Chapman follows his excellent Goalkeepers History of Britain with Bananas, a fascinating history of the United Fruit Company, one of the world's first true "multi-nationals". He brings his experiences as a long-time Central America reporter for the BBC and The Guardian to bear in a revealing exposé of power and greed gone wild. Chapman takes us from the early days of the development of the banana from a tropical oddity, to its spread throughout the Caribbean into Central America. Along the way, we meet a variety of characters, who expanded United Fruit Company and economically conquered Central America. Over the past 130 years or so, UFC pioneered business and corporate models that became the basis for multinationals and our present festering globalization.
I can remember teachers and professors trumpeting against the excesses of the United Fruit Company and "banana republics" back in the 1960 and 70s. Chapman details the long and tawdry road of corruption and malfeasance that UFC used to bully its opponents, both in the business and political worlds. Among the cast of characters are Boston Brahmins like the Cabots and the Lodges, the "upstart" Russian Jewish immigrant Sam Zemurray, both Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, and even Carmen Miranda and her animated descendant, Chiquita Banana. Along the way, we watch how UFC influenced US policy toward Latin America, from Gunboat Diplomacy, to the Good Neighbor Policy to Jimmy Carter's Human Rights to Ronald Reagan's Iran-Contra shenanigans. It is a story that mirrors the bigger flow of American foreign policy over the past century.
Of special interest in light of the War in Iraq is Chapman's reporting of the CIA/UFC manipulated coup d'etat in Guatemala in 1954. Managed with certitude by an uneducated, anti-communist, boob of a diplomat--Ambassador Jack Peurifoy--it featured contrived incidents, faked battle scenes, and propaganda aimed at both a Commie-fearing America and a pre-industrial Mayan populace. Of course, this putsch went the way United Fruit and the anti-communist Eisenhower administration hoped for. Many of the same simplistic machinations that worked so well in a less complicated setting, now seem to have caught up with us in the Middle East. The world has adapted to disingenuous and ham-fisted American tactics, but sadly the Bush administration is still using them.
I first read this book in England last summer and am delighted at the book's arrival in the American marketplace. I highly recommend it to those interested in history, or contemporary politics and economics.

Living in Central America I was interested in reading this book. It was a disappointment. There are a lot of facts thrown together with little information about how these could be verified, and no references as to how the information was obtained most of the times. The book could have been better organized, facts relating to other topics are all of sudden thrown in with no explanation of the links that may justify this. I don't think that Chapman makes a good case that the United Fruit Company shaped the world...they were after all only in Central America and some South American countries. I could think of other large multinationals who probably had more influence on how business is done, like the large oil firms. The last chapter brings us the usual rants about globalization, a more toughful conclusion would have been appreciated. But it gave me an interest in finding out more about United Fruit with more facts to support an analysis
Irene Lepine El Valle de Anton Panama

As a comparative American studies student, the history of the Americas particularly appeals to me. Currently writing an essay on the tragedy of United Fruit, I turned to Peter's Chapman's "Bananas!: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World" for an intelligent and at the same time, accessible read. Chapman's fluid account of the dirty dealings of "La Compania" was informative and filled with fascinating detail. All in all a great read for anyone interested in academics or simply the troubled history of an overwhelmingly powerful company which played a huge role in the lives of many. I can safely say that it will not take long for Chapman's book to make its way onto the reading lists of any University specialising in Latin American history.

I found this work thoroughly engaging. It's as much a critique of capitalism unregulated as it is a history of the fruit or the fruit company. "Bananas" peels the skin back on big business to reveal a soft and rotten core. From land swindles to destabilizing governments, from machine gun massacres to human rights violation, from propaganda to market manipulation, Chapman takes an unflinching look at just how far an organization motivated solely by profits is willing to go. Featuring an interesting cast of characters - from Carmen Miranda and Harry Belafonte to Che Guevara and Castro - "El Pulpo" has had its yellow tentacles in everything from the Bay of Pigs to the Vietnam War. At times fascinating, repulsive and laugh out loud funny (such as when company officials complained that they were being under-compensated for land sold at the price it was taxed at, a tax level they fixed), this a great, wandering read through the history of a company that shaped the world. Sadly, it probably cast the die for how many global concerns now function - ruthlessly, and beholden only to their greedy shareholders. Also sadly, their insistence and reliance upon a monolithic form of agriculture, subject to the ravages of disease, may well have doomed the fruit we all love and take for granted.

Chapman's BANANAS! is a must must read, especially for anyone desiring to learn more about the history behind globalization, U.S. backed multi (or rather uni-)nationals, and presumably (in my opinion) the catalyst to the U.S. embargo in Cuba that exists to this day. Let this be a warning (more for those not already well-versed in United Fruit Company history): the book may make you go bananas over its revealing content. But what is more fun about reading this book is Champan's attention to detail as he writes in a manner that could make for a dark comedy. Will it make it on to U.S. University reading lists, I'm pessimistic, but it should (as the previous reviewer suggests).

United Fruit had a monopoly on the banana for over 100 years. This book ties familiar names from US history into the company's history and offers a more cosmopolitan perspective to the import business. The fact that United Fruit virtually controlled all aspects of Central American politics and governance during their hey-day is never mentioned in history books. The company was deeply involved in fomenting revolutions and regime changes throughout Central America until the mid-1970's with the tacit approval of certain US agencies and the lobbying of well-known government appointees behind the scenes. The author ties events together and shows how ruthless monopolies can be when protecting their interests to the detriment of all other considerations. This is an intriguing behind the scenes look at globalization gone wild.

Fortunately for readers, two books were published about Bananas within months of each other at the end of 2007 / beginning of 2008.

Steer clear of this one.

The story of the Banana - and United Fruit's dominant role in the creation of 'Banana Republics' - is fascinating, so even Chapman's best efforts to push away the reader fall short, but I'd recommend Koeppel's book if you're interested in the tale of this not so simple fruit. Chapman's limpid, tongue-in-cheek-but-not-funny prose ruins the main effort here and renders his frequent tangential excursions (which run the gamut from United Fruit Killed JFK conspiracy to United Fruit Caused Americans to Be Fat implication) irritating at best. He summarizes too many of the most interesting episodes of United Fruit history and doesn't bother to discuss what efforts, if any, are being made to identify/create a replacement for the Cavendish. Instead, we're treated to his cursory explication of the evils of multi-national companies (for which, he argues, United Fruit was the trendsetter/model).

I'm not sure about you, but I like my non-fiction served with a bit more fact and a lot less bland admonishment.

Peter Chapman recounts bits of information and makes summary statements with neither any supporting information or providing an overall context for the actions of the people running United Fruit, now known as Chiquita. Exploitation of workers to produce profits for a few is a part of US history. Then New England that financed United Fruit is the New England that had the first slaves in the US and after they killed off most of the indigenous people they had enslaved they brought they imported the first African slaves. Not much a leap from using slaves for New England commerce to using local laborers in Central and South America and the Caribbean. For that matte the treatment of the coal miners working for Peabody Coal or Carnegie Steel was much the same with the American military used to brutally suppress any attempts by the workers to organize including massacres on US soil and the use of company stores to make workers little more than indentured servants for life.

The workers on the banana plantations that suffered from cancer and death from the use of Bordeaux Mixture is not different than the mostly Hispanic workers on American farms today who have cancer rates that are double that of the rest of the population. Exposure to pesticides and herbicides is 100 times greater than it was just one generation ago.

Chapman makes many states about how the CIA did this or that but the CIA is the President's army and follows the directions of the executive branch of our government. The toppling of democratically elected governments in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, Columbia, El Salvador, Haiti, Bolivia, Peru, Panama, and Vietnam involved the US CIA and the US military but it was done with the approval of the sitting President of the US. American company executives and shareholders profit today through exploiting the people and resources of countries around the world and when the people try to resist, as in Nigeria with Shell Oil, or Venezuela or Bolivia, it is still US policy to send in the CIA or permit the hiring of mercenaries like Blackwater or if all else fails, sending in our own men and women in the military to support the profit taking by these corporations.

What is interesting is Chapman's ambivalence toward the people in these countries being exploited by American businessman. Chapman refers to Costa Rica's "welfare state" as though it was somehow wrong for a government to be working for the welfare, i.e. the well being, of its people instead of exploiting them - a most un-American approach. Costa Rica provides its people with a free education, has more doctors per capita than the USA, has social security for all it people, provides single payer medical care for all of its people, and the average Costa Rican in spite of living in a less affluent country than the US has a life expectancy that is only 1 year less than the average American. The difference is a country that is not run by its military and foreign corporate interests and shows that even in a relatively poor country the health and well being of its people overall is much better than in the USA where we have 30 million people without medical coverage and 40 million people going without enough to eat.

Chapman makes brief mention of how the Guatemalan coup of 1954 supposedly led to the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, and that this in turn led to Castro allowing the Soviet Union to attempt to place missiles in Cuba. This ignores history and the efforts of the USA government to shut down the country and restore a dictatorship in Cuba. The US government refused to support Cuba's efforts at self-determination by refusing to allow refinery equipment to be shipped to Cuba and Castro was forced to turn to the Soviet Union for assistance. This failed policy has continued for the last 60 years through both Republican and Democratic Party presidencies.

Chapman mentions the overthrow of Salvador Allende as the democratically elected president of Chile but then implicated IT&T while making no mention of the well documented role of the CIA and Henry Kissinger in proactively supporting the military takeover and the strong support the US government under Nixon and Reagan, continued to give to the repressive regime of General Pinochet.

Chapman even goes so far as to state "When President Carter stopped military aid to some Central American regimes the bigger trouble started". Chapman believes that not actively supporting the criminal activities of military dictators was the reason for the workers and indigenous people rebelling and by implication not continuing to fund the murderers for the governments and the elites of these countries was harmful to the people. We see the same actions happening today in Honduras where the families who monopolize all business in the country have supported a coup to remove a president who dared to push through legislation that would have raised the wage of Honduran workers by $1 a day. No wonder these elite families were so upset.

Reagan, whose people did a no longer secret deal for arms to keep the American hostages in Iran from being released prior to the elections, continued with his policy of using any means to achieve a desired end with the continued illegal sale of American weapons and aircraft parts to Iran in return for money to support an illegal war in Central America. Chapman casually states "The world learned of the exploits of Colonel Oliver North, the enterprising US officer assigned to organize the bizarre 'Iran-Conta' plan". Chapman fails to mention that Oliver North was committing treason on behalf of President Reagan and supplying arms and money to the Contras who were in turn smuggling drugs into the USA using planes controlled by the CIA. Oliver North was enterprising and doing exactly what Noriega was doing in Panama and Noriega is in a US jail for the rest of his life while North has become a born again pseudo-Christian with a talk show courtesy of Murdoch.

The mistake, beyond doing no original research in writing his book, is that Chapman looks at United Fruit as an aberration when it is really typical of how capitalism operates when there is no government of the people to oppose them. Just as the US courts looked the other way when United Fruit seized the property of ABC claiming a lack of jurisdiction, the US courts continue to ignore the abuses by American corporate business people when it occurs overseas in Nigeria, the Sudan, Burma, India, Columbia, Bolivia, by companies like Chevron, Shell, DOW Chemical, Exxon, Bechtel, Blackwater, Carlyle, Monsanto, and their ilk.

This is an excellent book to read about the banana industry, the men behind it, how the term "Banana Republic" came about, the development and marketing of bananas. I highly recommend it.