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The Fish That Ate the Whale
- The Life and Times of America's Banana King
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
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Publisher's summary
When Samuel Zemurray arrived in America in 1891, he was tall, gangly, and penniless. When he died in the grandest house in New Orleans 69 years later, he was among the richest, most powerful men in the world. In between, he worked as a fruit peddler, banana hauler, dockside hustler, and plantation owner. He battled and conquered the United Fruit Company, becoming a symbol of the best and worst of the United States: proof 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. 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.
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A story to pay your attention to
- By George on 04-30-13
By: Howard W. French
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New World Coming
- The 1920s and the Making of Modern America
- By: Nathan Miller
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Jazz. Bootleggers. Flappers. Talkies. Model T Fords. Lindbergh's history-making flight over the Atlantic. The 1920s was also the decade of the hard-won vote for women, racial injustice, censorship, social conflict, and the birth of organized crime.
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My High School History Class Never Told
- By Charles Stembridge on 06-29-04
By: Nathan Miller
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Chinese Rules
- Mao's Dog, Deng's Cat, and Five Timeless Lessons from the Front Lines in China
- By: Tim Clissold
- Narrated by: Stephen Critchlow
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Exploring key episodes in that nation's long political, military, and cultural history, Clissold outlines five Chinese Rules, which anyone can deploy in on-the-ground situations with modern Chinese counterparts. These Chinese rules will enable foreigners not only to cooperate with China but also to compete with it on its own terms.
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Two books in one, one excellent one boring
- By Ed Sander on 09-08-17
By: Tim Clissold
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King and Queen of Malibu
- The True Story of the Battle for Paradise
- By: David K. Randall
- Narrated by: Eric Summerer
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
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Over a half century, Malibu went from an untamed ranch in the middle of nowhere to a paradise seeded with movie stars. Behind its transformation is the love story of Frederick and May Rindge. He was a Harvard-trained confidant of presidents; she grew up on a hardscrabble Midwestern farm; yet their unlikely bond would shape history.
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Great Listen!
- By Anonymous User on 09-25-23
By: David K. Randall
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Breaking Rockefeller
- The Incredible Story of the Ambitious Rivals Who Toppled an Oil Empire
- By: Peter B. Doran
- Narrated by: Peter B. Doran
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
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Marcus Samuel, Jr., is an unorthodox Jewish merchant trader. Henri Deterding is a take-no-prisoners oilman. In 1889 John D. Rockefeller is at the peak of his power. Having annihilated all competition and possessing near-total domination of the market, even the US government is wary of challenging the great "anaconda" of Standard Oil. The Standard never loses - that is, until Samuel and Deterding team up to form Royal Dutch Shell.
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Tale of business, cultures, dances as it teaches
- By Philo on 05-25-16
By: Peter B. Doran
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Hershey
- Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams
- By: Michael D'Antonio
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
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In this compelling biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael D'Antonio gives us the real-life rags-to-riches story of Milton S. Hershey, a largely uneducated businessman whose idealistic sense of purpose created an immense financial empire, a town, and a legacy that lasts to this day.
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The Benchmark for Chartiable, Rich Men
- By Boyd Tschaggeny on 01-30-19
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Uranium
- War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World
- By: Tom Zoellner
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
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Uranium is a common element in the earth's crust and the only naturally occurring mineral with the power to end all life on the planet. After World War II, it reshaped the global order---whoever could master uranium could master the world. Marie Curie gave us hope that uranium would be a miracle panacea, but the Manhattan Project gave us reason to believe that civilization would end with apocalypse.
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GREAT book, awful narration
- By Carolyn on 03-30-09
By: Tom Zoellner
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The Last Slave Ship
- The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning
- By: Ben Raines
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed, the Clotilda became the last ship in history to bring enslaved Africans to the United States. The ship was scuttled and burned on arrival to hide the wealthy perpetrators to escape prosecution. Despite numerous efforts to find the sunken wreck, Clotilda remained hidden for the next 160 years. But in 2019, journalist Ben Raines made international news when he successfully concluded his obsessive quest through the swamps of Alabama to uncover one of our nation’s most important historical artifacts.
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Wow. Just Wow.
- By Pinkhippiechick on 02-11-22
By: Ben Raines
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Only Yesterday
- An Informal History of the 1920s
- By: Frederick Lewis Allen
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
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In this span between armistice and depression, Americans were kicking up their heels, but they were also bringing about major changes in the social and political structure of their country. Only Yesterday is a fond, witty, penetrating biography of this restless decade, a delightful reminiscence for those who can remember and a fascinating firsthand look for those who've only heard.
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Loved this book
- By Matthew M. Kayes on 06-11-07
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Napa
- By: James Conaway
- Narrated by: John Morgan
- Length: 20 hrs and 29 mins
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Performance
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James Conaway's remarkable bestseller delves into the heart of California's lush and verdant Napa Valley, also known as America's Eden. Long the source of succulent grapes and singular wines, this region is also the setting for the remarkable true saga of the personalities behind the winemaking empires. This is the story of Gallos and Mondavis, of fortunes made and lost, of dynasties and destinies.
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Excellent But Marred by Non-Stop Mispronunciations
- By Robert R. on 08-15-13
By: James Conaway
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For any Bears fans
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just listen and it all happens again
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Fifty years after the Cuban revolution, the legendary wealth of the sugar magnate Julio Lobo remains emblematic of a certain way of life that came to an abrupt end when Fidel Castro marched into Havana. Known in his day as the King of Sugar, Lobo was for decades the most powerful force in the world sugar market, controlling vast swaths of the island's sugar interests.
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VERY INFORMATIVE
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In August of 1914, the British ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. In October, 1915, still half a continent away from its intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in the ice. For five months, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways in one of the most savage regions of the world.
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Every life reaches that crucial intersection, the place where you must choose your fate, or have it chosen for you. For best-selling author Rich Cohen (The Fish That Ate the Whale, The Last Pirate of New York), it came in a writing workshop senior year in college, when, at 17, he had to knuckle under to a ruthless professor or make a righteous, self-defeating stand.
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Foul Language Warning
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The Sun & the Moon & the Rolling Stones
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My eyes hurt from constantly rolling them.
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What listeners say about The Fish That Ate the Whale
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Dave H
- 01-21-15
A part of history everyone should know
One if the best books I've listened to in a long time. However knew bananas had such a colorful history.
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- Anonymous User
- 05-18-19
Amazing and Super Interesting Book
This book is definitely worth listening to. I'm really glad I found it. Good book.
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- Alex Ikonn
- 05-27-15
Fascinating listen!
Amazing how a person can have such influence over history coming from nothing. Great listen.
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- George Marshall Miller
- 06-15-22
A Fascinating Connection of Dots
Growing up in a Caribbean family in a Caribbean neighborhood in the 50’s and ‘60’s in Brooklyn, New York, I felt a vague antipathy towards the United Fruit Company that I didn’t really understand. It was like a dirty word whose etymology remained a mystery. Similarly, in our home, Harry Belafonte’s “Day O” (“Come Mr. tally man, tally me banana”) had some special unexplained significance… something beyond its success on the pop charts and the sheer pleasure of the song. As a teenager, I read “Exodus” by Leon Uris and watched the movie.I glanced at the 1954 overthrow of Arbenz in Guatemala and watched the triumph of the Cuban Revolution unfold in the newspapers, on TV, and in the stories of my Cuban classmates and their families. Yet it was not until I read (listened to, actually) “The Fish That Ate the Whale” that all these things (and more) took on their interconnected significance and meaning. It’s a American “rags-to-riches” story about a penniless “Russian” Jew who immigrated to the USA, and took over a WASP corporation (United Fruit) which despised and rejected him, and at the same time it’s a saga about piracy, revolution, racism, neo-colonialism, the Cold War, Zionism, family, and the link between government and big business. It’s a well written page turner I highly recommend.
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- Foster Jackman
- 11-08-22
Incredible
I entered this book knowing so little about the banana industry. I’ve left it as if my whole education was in it
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- Elmocat
- 12-14-12
Fascinating history. A lot of questions
Would you listen to The Fish That Ate the Whale again? Why?
Being from South America, I had always been aware of the issues between the "Gringos" and the rest. However this book does a fantastic job, specially towards the end, of bringing these issues to light.
What does Robertson Dean bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
The voice
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No. It was great for a perfect afternoon drive
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- @insurancebillvj
- 09-14-17
Brilliant, entertaining,
So worth my time, delivered way more than I expected. Please listen and appreciate human existence.
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- Jeff Wallick
- 04-10-17
Must read!
This is the first book review I've ever left. This is my favorite book I've finished in at least the past year. Unbelievably interesting story and phenomenally well-written.
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- peter metsch
- 08-06-18
had know idea how great this book was going to be
You would think that a book about bananas and the global fruit business would be boring. It Is not at all, it is a snapshot into American history, American business and the American dream. I will tell you as I told all my friends, you must read this book!
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- Xwood
- 07-13-23
Excellent
What a great listen. I found the story fascinating and the narration easy flowing. Definitely recommend.
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