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 Trail is at once a study in global economics and a lively travelogue.
 

Tom Miller has been writing about Latin America and the American Southwest for more than four decades. His highly praised books include Trading with the Enemy and Revenge of the Saguaro, and his articles have appeared in the New York Times, Smithsonian, LIFE, Rolling Stone, and Natural History, among other outlets. He is affiliated with the University of Arizona’s Center for Latin American Studies, and at a 2008 ceremony, the City of Quito proclaimed Miller Un Huésped Ilustre (An Illustrious Guest).