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. Zemurray lived one of the great untold stories of the last hundred years. Working his way up from a roadside fruit peddler to conquering the United Fruit Company, Zemurray became a symbol of the best and worst of the United States: proof that 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. 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. When Samuel Zemurray arrived in America in 1891, he was tall, gangly, and penniless. The fascinating untold tale of Samuel Zemurray, the self-made banana mogul who went from penniless roadside banana peddler to kingmaker and capitalist revolutionary Named a Best Book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle and The Times-Picayune
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