In the early twentieth century, the Boston-based United Fruit Company controlled the production, distribution, and marketing of bananas, the most widely consumed fresh fruit in North America. So great was the company's power that it challenged the sovereignty of the Latin American and Caribbean countries in which it operated, giving rise to the notion of company-dominated "banana republics."
In A Camera in the Garden of Eden, Kevin Coleman argues that the "banana republic" was an imperial constellation of images and practices that was checked and contested by ordinary...
In the early twentieth century, the Boston-based United Fruit Company controlled the production, distribution, and marketing of bananas, the most w...