horsefly's review against another edition
4.0
If you want to know how the US got involved in Central America, and what motivated Truman to create the CIA, this is the book for you. It is well written, which to me means I enjoyed reading it.
blevins's review against another edition
3.0
Evidently, there was a lot to learn about the banana trade as I realized early on in this bio of Sam Zemurray aka "The Banana Man" due to his wealth and power in the banana trade. I didn't know anything about bananas except they were tropical. This book tells the story of Zemurray's immigration to the United States and how he created an empire from an initial purchase of ripe bananas. His power was so great, he could even topple governments in Central American if he didn't like how they dealt with his banana business. I doubt I'll ever read the word banana as much in the books I read in the rest of my life as much as I saw it on the page in this one. I can now talk about banana history if anyone ever brings up the topic, ha.
lmsk's review against another edition
4.0
Another fascinating story that goes under-taught in American history class: that of Sam Zemurray. Compared to other quintessentially American rags-to-riches-to-recluse tales (Hughes?) this had less late-stage senility and more commentary on foreign policy via the corporation's bottom line. The author's assertion that this tells the story of 20th century America is well-founded.
Stylistically the author liked to self-insert and break the 4th wall more than I like, but found this an enjoyably paced biography nonetheless.
Stylistically the author liked to self-insert and break the 4th wall more than I like, but found this an enjoyably paced biography nonetheless.
jacobjonk's review against another edition
4.0
Very interesting a crazy real story the author's style is fun which is actually why I even picked this out because I liked his style in another book of his so I will continue to read him I just think it drug on at times.
miguelf's review against another edition
3.0
This Horatio Alger type biography becomes interesting when it comes to the adjacent stories that surround the life of its protagonist. The background on the CIA involvement in the Guatemala coup of '54, the assistance post WWII Israeli transport to Palestine, and other associated characters seem like they would make for much more interesting reading than what's yet another pulling-his-way-up-with-his-bootstraps American "success story". Of course in telling this success story there's not much in the way of going into much detail on the involvement in essentially enslaving hundreds of thousands of slave laborers in Central America so that he could sit atop the bulk load of the profits. The writing and research are good - but I don't feel very enriched about knowing about this minor robber baron, nor does he come across as an appealing character in any way.
sxtwo's review against another edition
4.0
I loved Cohen's style. The story of Zemurray is fascinating on its own, but the surrounding story of modern corporate America is the real story here.