Bananas: An American History

Before 1880 most Americans had never seen a banana, but by 1910 bananas were so common that the streets were littered with their peels. In this wide-ranging history of the most popular and least expensive fruit in the United States, Virginia Scott Jenkins covers every aspect of the banana in American culture, from its beginnings as luxury food to its reputation as the "poor man's" fruit to its role today as a healthy, easy-to-carry snack. Bananas provides an insightful look at a fruit with appeal.