Bacardi and The Long Fight for Cuba

Bacardi and The Long Fight for Cuba witten by Tom Gjelten is an interesting story about the beginnings og Bacardi Rum and the familys involvement in Cubas revolution. Majority of the story is on how Emilio Bacardi turned his run company into the one we know it as today. While Emilio was a very well known business man, he was also involved in the fight against Spanish rule. He became a prominent figure in the revolution and although he was arrested twice he became the city of Santiago's mayor.

If you enjoy a long 369 page history lesson you would like this book. It is full of facts, stories and a fair amount of pictures. I enjoyed reading this book.

Pocahontas

Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World

Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World is an account of the United Fruit Company, one of the 20th Century's most notorious corporations.

The book, written by Peter Chapman, describes the history of this strong and influential fruit business, that brought the banana, a rare and exotic fruit, into the world. Chapman traces the origins of the fruit to it's heritage located in South America, as it travels to the United States and the rest of the world. This exotic travel eventually begins as a struggle for United Fruit, though with the assistance of the United States through bloodshed and war, United Fruit becomes a strong political power in various South-American countries, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, and Cuba.

Money, greed, war, and capitalism eventually lead to the demise of United Fruit, however it is Chapman's descriptive account that intrigues the reader about the downfall of one of the world's most powerful corporations.

Overall, "Bananas" was a great summer read.

---Voltaire