The fish that ate the whale : the life and times of America's banana king / Rich Cohen.
2012
HD9259.B2 Z463 2012 (Mapit)
Available at General Collection
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Details
Title
The fish that ate the whale : the life and times of America's banana king / Rich Cohen.
Author
Cohen, Rich.
Edition
1st ed.
ISBN
9780374299279
0374299277
0374299277
Publication Details
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012.
Language
English
Description
xiii, 270 p. : map ; 24 cm.
Call Number
HD9259.B2 Z463 2012
Dewey Decimal Classification
338.7/634772092 B
Summary
A biography of the little-known antihero, Samuel Zemurray (1877-1961), the disgraced mogul of the much hated United Fruit Company who aided the creation of Israel, funded many of Tulane University's buildings, and had a hand in the rise of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.
When Samuel Zemurray arrived in America in 1891, he was tall, gangly, and penniless. When he died in the grandest house in New Orleans sixty-nine years later, he was among the richest, most powerful men in the world. In between, he worked as a fruit peddler, banana hauler, dockside hustler, and plantation owner. He battled and conquered the United Fruit Company, becoming a symbol of the best and worst of the United States: proof America is the land of opportunity, but also a classic example of the corporate pirate who treats foreign nations as the backdrop for his adventures. Starting with nothing but a cart of freckled bananas, he built a sprawling empire of banana cowboys, mercenary soldiers, Honduran peasants, CIA agents, and American statesmen. -- Publisher description
When Samuel Zemurray arrived in America in 1891, he was tall, gangly, and penniless. When he died in the grandest house in New Orleans sixty-nine years later, he was among the richest, most powerful men in the world. In between, he worked as a fruit peddler, banana hauler, dockside hustler, and plantation owner. He battled and conquered the United Fruit Company, becoming a symbol of the best and worst of the United States: proof America is the land of opportunity, but also a classic example of the corporate pirate who treats foreign nations as the backdrop for his adventures. Starting with nothing but a cart of freckled bananas, he built a sprawling empire of banana cowboys, mercenary soldiers, Honduran peasants, CIA agents, and American statesmen. -- Publisher description
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references.
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Table of Contents
Green:
Selma
Ripes
The fruit jobber
Brown to green
Bananas don't grow on trees
The octopus
New Orleans;
Yellow:
The isthmus
To the Collins
Revolutin'
To the isthmus and back
The bananas war;
Ripe:
King fish
The fish that ate the whale
Los Pericos
Bananas go to war
Israel is real
Operation success
Backlash;
Brown:
What remains
Bay of Pigs
The earth eats the fish that ate the whale
Fastest way to the street;
Epilogue.
Selma
Ripes
The fruit jobber
Brown to green
Bananas don't grow on trees
The octopus
New Orleans;
Yellow:
The isthmus
To the Collins
Revolutin'
To the isthmus and back
The bananas war;
Ripe:
King fish
The fish that ate the whale
Los Pericos
Bananas go to war
Israel is real
Operation success
Backlash;
Brown:
What remains
Bay of Pigs
The earth eats the fish that ate the whale
Fastest way to the street;
Epilogue.