The Panama Hat Trail [Paperback]

Critically acclaimed author Tom Miller reveals the making and marketing of one Panama hat, from the straw fields of Ecuador’s coastal lowland to a hat shop in Southern California. Along the way, the hat becomes a literary device allowing Miller to give us his impressions from the tributaries of the Amazon to the mountainsides of the Andes.The Panama Hat Trailis at once a study in global economics and a lively travelogue.
 

Critically acclaimed author Tom Miller reveals the making and marketing of one Panama hat, from the straw fields of Ecuador’s coastal lowland to a hat shop in Southern California. Along the way, the hat becomes a literary device allowing Miller to give us his impressions from the tributaries of the Amazon to the mountainsides of the Andes.The Panama Hat Trailis at once a study in global economics and a lively travelogue.

“Among the best travel books ever written.”—National Geographic Traveler

“A fascinating view. Miller is a good story teller… his entertaining book puts a feather in the Ecuadorian straw hat.”—Christian Science Monitor
 
“There is Miller, rolling from one adventure to another, part Mark Twain, part Evelyn Waugh. . . . By the time you finish with the people and the places the author introduces you to, you will wish you had Tom Miller’s job. But then, you don’t have Tom Miller’s eyes.”—Phoenix New Times
 
“An almost novelistic adventure story.”—USA Today

Tom Miller has been writing about Latin America and the American Southwest for more than four decades. His highly praised books includeTrading with the EnemyandRevenge of the Saguaro, and his articles have appeared in theNew York Times,Smithsonian,LIFE,Rolling Stone, andNatural History, among other outll3%