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In 1885, Boston entrepreneur Andrew Preston* and a partner formed the Boston Fruit Company, with the idea of using fast steamships, rather than sail, to get bananas to market before they spoiled. It was a success: Inexpensive, delicious bananas took the country by storm. By the turn of the century Boston Fruit, which was later merged into the Unite
... See moreDouglas Preston • The Lost City of the Monkey God
It hardly mattered that he was a pathological tyrant, that he had the blood of mass murders on his hands, or that his mannerisms and brutal actions conjured images of Adolph Hitler. The United States had tolerated and even supported such men many times before. We would be happy to offer him U.S. government securities in exchange for petrodollars, f
... See moreJohn Perkins • Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
On Sunday, 13 January, negotiations broke down completely. Peter left for Rome at first light next morning. He was never to get there. While waiting for the ferry across the Rhône, a hooded rider galloped up to Peter and put a sword through him. The identity of the assassin remains unknown, but it mattered little: it was now war. The Albigensian Cr
... See moreSean Martin • The Cathars: The Most Successful Heresy of the Middle Ages
many people have given him a great deal of credit for damaging an institution that was in grave need of being damaged. This did not come about because Stetson Kennedy was courageous or resolute or unflappable, even though he was all of these. It happened because he understood the raw power of information.
Stephen J. Dubner • Freakonomics
The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler
The situation of the Yamnaya chiefs might have been similar to that described by Barth in his account of the Yusufai Pathan invasion of the Swat valley in Pakistan in the sixteenth century. The invader, “faced with the sea of politically undifferentiated villagers proceeds to organize a central island of authority, and from this island he attempts
... See moreDavid W. Anthony • The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World
Heading the IMF are two officials chosen by rich countries.
Paul Blustein • And the Money Kept Rolling in (And Out): Wall Street, the Imf, And the Bankrupting of Argentina: Wall Street, the IMF and the Bankrupting of Argentina
The international community paid the PLO, and then the PA, billions of dollars to support the Palestinian people. Needless to say, those billions did not make it to the Palestinian people, who still struggle with poverty. The
Noa Tishby • Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth
McAnnis had had one cult case before, and he knew what didn’t work—words. What did work was kidnapping. He grabbed her off the street in broad daylight—she was walking with just one other Ayuva Daeva devotee, on the way back from the Berkeley Grocery Collective, paper bags in hand—and shoved her into his rental car, placed handcuffs around her wris
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