| Front Cover |
Book Details |
|
| Author |
|
| Selling Price |
$24.50
|
| Genre |
Business |
| Publication Date |
1986 |
| Format |
Hardcover
(220
mm)
|
| Publisher |
William Morrow & Co
|
| Language |
English |
| Extras |
Dust Jacket |
|
| Plot |
Panama hats don't come from Panama; they are made two countries away in Ecuador, in South America. Tom Miller traveled there to find the origins of the hats. His account, a fascinating look at South American culture, tells of an exotic and humorous journey which was also the basis for a four-part series Miller reported for National Public Radio's All Things Considered.
The adventure takes him from Quito, the capital, once said to have one hundred churches and one bathroom, to the boisterous port of Guayaquil, where tropical indulgence is a way of life; from the village of Deleg in the Andes, where half the adult males have gone to work in the United States, to Lago Agrio in the Amazon jungle, where one fifth of the adult females are prostitutes. He learns of Catholic missionaries seeking converts in a country that is already 98 percent Catholic; tries not to think about Bus Plunge news reports as he takes numerous rides to mountain villages; and visits the last Jews of Ecuador. He examines coups (during one coup attempt the government radio station repeatedly played "There's No Business Like Show Business") and drug trafficking (some Indians have made so much money from drugs that they buy satellite dishes so they can watch MTV).
Learning how a Panama hat is made and marketed - from the harvesting of raw straw in the middle of a jungle to the purchase of a finished hat in a store in San Diego - is more than a travel adventure and a cultural study; it is also an off-beat lesson in the workings of world trade. How is a hat, sold for seventy cents by the peasant who has painstakingly woven it by hand, eventually bought for thirty-five dollars? Why do the impoverished peasants have little knowledge of this - and less interest?
Tom Miller perceptively and personably leads us around the old Inca Empire, across the equator, through American foreign policy, and along one of the least traveled and most remarkable trails in the world - The Panama Hat Trail.
Tom Miller is the author of the acclaimed On the Border: Portraits of America's Southwestern Frontier, among other books. His articles on conflict and culture in the American Southwest and Latin America have appeared in The New York Times, Esquire, and other publications, and he has worked as a consultant and writer for radio and television documentaries. Miller lives in Tucson, Arizona.
Jacket design by Mike Stromherg
William Morrow & Company, Inc.
105 Madison Avenue
New York, N.Y 10016
Printed in U.S. A. |
| Personal Details |
| Condition |
Very Good |
| Owner |
FamilyHistorySites |
| FHS ItemID |
20040569 |
|
| Product Details |
| LoC Classification |
F3716.M55 1986 |
| Dewey |
382.4568741 19 |
| ISBN |
0688063950 |
| Edition |
1st Edition |
| Nr of Pages |
271 |
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|
