1 From the memory of men -- 2 Lament for a dying fruit -- 3 Roots of empire -- 4 Monopoly -- 5 The banana man -- 6 Taming the enclave -- 7 Banana republics -- 8 On the inside -- 9 Coup -- 10 'Betrayal' -- 11 Decline and fall -- 12 Old and dark forces -- Epilogue : united fruit world
Summary
"In this book, Peter Chapman shows how the pioneering example of the importer United Fruit 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 in new ways (that later backfired) and stoked the revolutionary ire of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro." "Chapman weaves a tale of big business, deceit and lies to show how one company wreaked irrevocable havoc in the 'banana republics' of Central America."--BOOK JACKET