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| | Description | The stunning, never before told story of the quixotic attempt to recreate small-town America in the heart of the Amazon In 1927, Henry Ford, the richest man in the world, bought a tract of land twice the size of Delaware in the Brazilian Amazon. His intention was to grow rubber, but the project rapidly evolved into a more ambitious bid to export America itself, along with its golf courses, ice-cream shops, bandstands, indoor plumbing, and Model Ts rolling down broad streets. Fordlandia, as the settlement was called, quickly became the site of an epic clash. On one side was the car magnate, lean, austere, the man who reduced industrial production to its simplest motions; on the other, the Amazon, lush, extravagant, the most complex ecological system on the planet. Ford’s early success in imposing time clocks and square dances on the jungle soon collapsed, as indigenous workers, rejecting his midwestern Puritanism, turned the place into a ribald tropical boomtown. Fordlandia’s eventual demise as a rubber plantation foreshadowed the practices that today are laying waste to the rain forest. More than a parable of one man’s arrogant attempt to force his will on the natural world, Fordlandia depicts a desperate quest to salvage the bygone America that the Ford factory system did much to dispatch. As Greg Grandin shows in this gripping and mordantly observed history, Ford’s great delusion was not that the Amazon could be tamed but that the forces of capitalism, once released, might yet be contained. Fordlandia is a 2009 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction. | |
| | Product Details | | Author: | Greg Grandin | | Hardcover: | 432 pages | | Publisher: | Metropolitan Books | | Publication Date: | June 09, 2009 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0805082360 | | Product Length: | 9.38 inches | | Product Width: | 6.34 inches | | Product Height: | 1.36 inches | | Product Weight: | 1.57 pounds | | Package Length: | 9.3 inches | | Package Width: | 6.5 inches | | Package Height: | 1.4 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.8 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 71 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 71 customer reviews )
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136 of 145 found the following review helpful:
 "Midwest of his imagination" Jun 15, 2009
By L.A. in CA
This book offers a rare and fascinating look into Henry Ford's grand economic experiment in the Amazon jungle.
In 1927, approaching his 65th birthday, Ford sent his first two ships to the area. He had purchased 2.5 million acres of Amazon land - roughly the size of Connecticut. He planned not only to plant rubber trees, but also to mine the land for gold; drill for oil; and harvest timber. In addition, he hoped to bring his American-style sensibilities to the region: the production line; sanitation; buildings such as Churches, cottages; a hospital; a movie theater; and the idea of fair wages for hard work. What he didn't bring was a an expertise in growing rubber trees, or an understanding of the Amazon and it's people.
One other thing Ford never brought to Fordlandia was himself. Between the inception of Fordlandia in 1927 and Ford's death in 1947, he never set foot in the Amazon.
This is the story of the creation of "Fordlandia", amazing in itself. But, it is also the story of Henry Ford (a man of sharp contradictions); the struggles of the American and Brazilian laborers who worked in the City; and of the Amazon. It also speaks of a different era, when seemingly impossible things could be attempted.
Very well written and researched. Lots of old photographs. I can find no flaws. Highly recommended.
44 of 48 found the following review helpful:
Riveting from Beginning to End Jun 23, 2009
By History Teacher
One of the best books I have read on Henry Ford, and I've read most all of them. The author provides a fascinating rendition of so many topics, including the Amazon, Diego Rivera's Detroit murals, the booming 1920s and the hard times of the 1930s. The book is epic in scope, a really wonderful journey that takes readers from Detroit to the wilds of northern Michigan, the Tennessee River Valley (I didn't know that the idea for the TVA came from Ford!) and then to the Amazon. I fully recommend this book.
38 of 42 found the following review helpful:
Fascinating, Well Written and Well Researched Jun 29, 2009
By Sandra I. Oliver
Fordlandia is that rare non-fiction written by an historian that is a great read. Author Greg Grandin takes the reader on a wonderful voyage down the Amazon as he uncovers a magical mystery escapade of Henry Ford. Not unlike many of the recent forays into Southeast Asia and the Middle East, Ford's desire to claim the hearts, minds and raw materials of Latin America, specically Brazil seem very modern and familiar. He seems to have made all the classic errors of neo-colonism: ignoring the host culture, trying to impose an inappropriate culture and economic system, sending personnel not schooled in the language or culture.
On top of this, the Amazon was an unfriendly climate for those used to the cold winds of Michigan and the Puritan work ethic of the United States. Insects, diseases, "indolent" workers, lack of modern conveniences and the very essence of the area combined to doom Ford's dream of establlishing a town/plantation devoted to cornering the market on rubber.
Ford's efforts to transplant his River Rouge auto plant to the jungle of Brazil makes for fascinating and thought provoking reading.
12 of 13 found the following review helpful:
A noble idea doomed from the start Jul 26, 2009
By James D. Crabtree
"Doc Crabtree"
Henry Ford, a man who had successfully developed the industrial technique which would raise the living standards of America and much of the world, tried to create his own "rubber state" in the depths of the Brazilian jungle (they call it a "rain forest now, for PR purposes). Having gotten his hands on iron mines for steel, forests for lumber and copper mines for wiring "Fordlandia" was an attempt by Ford to get access to the one material still out of his reach: rubber.
At the time, rubber was mostly coming from European colonies in Asia. Attempts to grow it in Florida were not very successful so Ford looked to Brazil, where rubber-bearing plants originated from. The Ford company convinced the state and federal governments to give him a stretch of territory the size of Connecticut for the purposes of growing rubber trees. Ford spent millions of dollars on Fordlandia, creating a small American town in the wilderness, complete with swimming pools, a modern hospital, a powerplant, sawmill, etc.
However, Ford had a habit of forming opinions and then not listening to experts. His efforts to grow rubber were doomed because rubber plants in Brazil are subject to a host of diseases and pests (rubber plants in Asia do not have this problem) which makes large-scale, industrial collection of rubber impractical.
The book is well-written, discussing Henry Ford's eccentric ideas and the experiences of many of his employees who were involved in Fordlandia. The research is first-rate. However, the book does diverge significantly from the subject at hand, comparing Ford's attempts to conquer the Brazilian jungle to the War in Iraq (!!!) and devoting several unfortunate pages to a rant about capitalism, global warming and globalism. Otherwise it would rate full five stars.
11 of 12 found the following review helpful:
A truly great read for those who like history and great storytelling! Jul 28, 2009
By W. P. Strange
"Bill's shelf"
It is seldom that I enjoy reading this type of history just for the sheer entertainment and of course the history lessons it offers. This isn't the first book about Henry Ford's South American adventure and attempt to corner the world market for rubber, and I can't say that I have read all the others so I can't offer a comparison, in fact it has been only a dozen years or so since the last one, and that too was titled "Fordlandia." but I believe that was a fictionalized account.
After the unimaginable success of Ford's Model T, and in the '30s he is the wealthiest man in the world, Henry Ford is launching The Model A, and this time he is offering several more color options than black. He has also aquired Lincoln Motors and entered into the luxury car market, so with his son Edsel they embark on a plan to build a city, complete with golf courses and other amenities of civilization to lure workers to his new utopia carved out of the wilderness. It is truly an amazing story of big business, greed, hubris and even anti-semitism. The writing is sometimes rough, and uneven, but the immense amount of research Grandin has done is evident, and the original photos included and spread throughout the text increase the pleasure of reading this volume..
See all 71 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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