Description
Book SynopsisNow in a concise edition created expressly for students and general readers, this widely hailed study traces the transformation of the tropics in modern times. Exploring the central role of the United States in the ongoing devastation of tropical lands, Richard P. Tucker shows how, in the late 1800s, American speculators first became participants in the centuries-long history of European economic and ecological hegemony in the tropics. Beginning as buyers in the tropical ports of the Atlantic and Pacific, they evolved into land speculators, controlling and managing the areas where tropical crops were grown for carefully fostered consumer markets at home. As corporate agro-industry emerged, the speculators took direct control of the ecological destinies of many tropical lands. Supported by the U.S. government''s diplomatic and military protection, they built private empires in the Caribbean, Central and South America, the Pacific, Southeast Asia, and West Africa.Yankee investors and pla
Trade ReviewThis insightful work condenses and updates the original 2000 edition. Tucker explores the ecological destruction of tropical environments by US capitalists and corporations. . . . The author largely attributes tropical degradation to the insatiable appetite of the American consumer. Recommended. * CHOICE *
Richard Tucker has drawn on a lifetime of scholarship to produce a critical account of the ways American companies and consumers have contributed to the environmental degradation of tropical countries. Anyone interested in the American impact on the third world will benefit from the insights and information in this wide-ranging and remarkable study. The abridged paperback will find a place in a variety of classes, bringing this important story to a broader audience. -- David S. Painter, Georgetown University
This investigation creates space for big history, using consumption to bring economy and environment together. -- Anthony Amato, Southwest Minnesota State University
Table of ContentsIntroduction: America's Global Environmental Reach Chapter 1: America's Sweet Tooth: Cane Sugar Transforms Tropical Lowlands Chapter 2: Banana Republics: Yankee Fruit Companies and the Tropical American Lowlands Chapter 3: The Last Drop: The American Coffee Market and the Hill Regions of South America Chapter 4: The Tropical Cost of the Automotive Age: Corporate Rubber Empires and the Rainforest Chapter 5: The Crop on Hooves: American Cattle Ranching in Latin America Chapter 6: Unsustainable Yield: American Loggers and Foresters in the Tropics Conclusion: Consuming Appetites
