Screams at the Cuban Shore

"Throughout all of this, United Fruit defined the modern multinational corporation at its most effective—and, as it turned out, its most pernicious. At home, it cultivated clubby ties with those in power and helped pioneer the modern arts of public relations and marketing. (After a midcentury makeover by the 'father of public relations,' Edward Bernays, the company started pushing a cartoon character named Señorita Chiquita Banana.) Abroad, it coddled dictators while using a mix of paternalism and violence to control its workers. 'As for repressive regimes, they were United Fruit’s best friends, with coups d’état among its specialties,' Chapman writes. 'United Fruit had possibly launched more exercises in "regime change" on the banana’s behalf than had even been carried out in the name of oil.'"

Daniel Kurtz-Phelan reviews Peter Chapman's Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World in The New York Times.