Product Description

Bananas, the most frequently consumed fresh fruit in the United States, have been linked to Miss Chiquita and Carmen Miranda, "banana republics," and Banana Republic clothing stores—everything from exotic kitsch, to Third World dictatorships, to middle-class fashion. But how did the rise in banana consumption in the United States affect the banana-growing regions of Central America? In this lively, interdisciplinary study, John Soluri integrates agroecology, anthropology, political economy, and history to trace the symbiotic growth of the export banana industry in Honduras and the consumer mass market in the United States.

Beginning in the 1870s when bananas first appeared in the U.S. marketplace, Soluri examines the tensions between the small-scale growers, who dominated the trade in the early years, and the shippers. He then shows how rising demand led to changes in production that resulted in the formation of major agribusinesses, spawned international migrations, and transformed great swaths of the Honduran environment into monocultures susceptible to plant disease epidemics that in turn changed Central American livelihoods. Soluri also looks at labor practices and workers' lives, changing gender roles on the banana plantations, the effects of pesticides on the Honduran environment and people, and the mass marketing of bananas to consumers in the United States. His multifaceted account of a century of banana production and consumption adds an important chapter to the history of Honduras, as well as to the larger history of globalization and its effects on rural peoples, local economies, and biodiversity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #300468 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 337 pages

About the Author
JOHN SOLURI is Associate Professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Customer Reviews

Banana for Banana Cultures
I very much enjoyed this book! It offers some interesting insights into the history of banana production in Honduras from an agro-ecological perspective. The impact of pathogens on patterns of production is not often highlighted, and this book does just that.

However, this work also attempts to do too much and in the end (in this case, quite literally -- in the Conclusion), it doesn't do enough of all that it sets out to do. A tighter analysis on the role of the state in banana production would have improved the overall analysis. A sharper historical perspective would have also served this purpose. Furthermore, a wider discussion of the issue of memory in the Chapter on Prision Verde would have made a discussion of collective memory add a new and interesting dimension to the overall project.

In sum, the book is very interesting and the moves the author makes (including the literary analysis, as well as his highlighting the trials of producers in the face of plant diseases, etc.) result in making this work a very interesting read! This book is worth having in any collection of works on Central America!

Banana Culture - What The Western Love of The Banana Meant For Honduras
This book contains much valuable information for anyone interested in the business/corporate culture of Honduras, and the way that American government and business interests have negatively affected the lives and well-being of the Honduran people.


The author does an excellent job of explaining the problems with banana fungus and how the wonder treatment from the West - pesticides sprayed through high-powered hoses, the bananas then dipped into acid baths to take off the residue of the pesticide, had a long-term impact on the Honduran agricultural workers. Some of them claim that they sweated blue dye from their pores, ruining mattresses, sheets and clothing - the health problems were far more dire, including early death from respiratory illnesses.

Big Business
To us they are just bananas, but to Honduras they were a major source of income until big business got involved. If you want to see how big business can destroy a source of income for many small farmers and destroy the local environment, then this is the book for you. Read about how promises were made but not kept by big business. See how business "leaders" were doing just fine but local workers were struggling to make a living. Healthcare or benefits, for the local worker, why? The struggle goes on for the local Honduran people while the banana business just moved on.