THE SPINACH KING: THE RISE AND FALL OF AN AMERICAN DYNASTY BY JOHN SEABROOK

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The riveting saga of the Seabrook Family, by one ofThe New Yorkers most acclaimed storytellers.

Having left this material for his writer son, my father must have wanted the story told, even if he couldnt bear to tell it himself.So begins the story of a forgotten American dynasty, a farming family from the bean fields of southern New Jersey who became as wealthy and powerful as aristocratsonly to implode in a storm of lies.

The patriarch, C. F. Seabrook, was hailed as the Henry Ford of Agriculture. His son Jack, a keen businessman, was poised to take over whatLifecalled the biggest vegetable factory on earth. But the carefully cultivated facadeglamorous outings by horse-drawn carriage, hidden wine cellars, and movie star girlfriendshid dark secrets that led to the implosion of the family business.

At the heart of the narrative is a multi-generational succession battle. Its a tale of family secrets and Swiss bank accounts, of half-truths, of hatred and passionand lots and lots of liquor. The Seabrooks colorful legal and moral failings took place amid the trappings of extraordinary privilege. But the story of where that money came from is not so pretty

They say behind every great fortune there is a great crime. At Seabrook Farms, the troubling American histories of race, immigration, and exploitation arise like weeds from the soil. Great Migration Black laborers struck against the company for better wages in the 1930s, and Japanese Americans helped found a global village on the farm after World War II. Revealing both C. F. and Jack Seabrooks corruption,The Spinach Kingundermines the great man theory of industrial progress. It also shows how American farms evolved from Jeffersonian smallholdings to gigantic agribusinesses, and what such enormous firms do to the families whose fate is bound up in the land.

A compulsively readable story of class and privilege, betrayal and revengethree decades in the makingThe Spinach Kingexplores the authors complicated family legacy and the dark corners of the American Dream.

30 illustrations

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