This 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 Reviews

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 J. Amato

A comprehensive history of American roles in tropical agriculture and forestry . . . ranging from business and environmental history to anthropology, political science, and ecology.

Charles Coate, Journal of American History

I, and many other environmental scientists, will find it an invaluable source. . . . Too few [Americans] realize the enormous impacts citizens of the USA have because of their consumption of mundane items ranging from bananas and coffee to hamburgers, magazines and trophy homes. Richard Tucker's monumental book could help cure that ignorance.

Paul R. Ehrlich, Stanford University, Environmental Conservation

[A] well-researched, thorough exploration of the US's role in resource exploitation in the tropics. . . . The book is important as more than a historical work because the driving forces behind large-scale corporate agricultural production and timber exploitation remain at work today. Highly recommended.

Choice Reviews