Fordlandia : The Rise and Fall of Henry Fords Forgotten Jungle City

English

ISBN: 0805082360

EAN: 9780805082364

Category: Political Science / World / Caribbean & Latin American/Biography & Autobiography / Business/Business & Economics / Industries / Automobile Industry/History / Latin America / South America/

Publisher: Holt & Company, Henry

Release Date: 06/09/2009

Synopsis: The stunning, never before told story of the quixotic attempt to recreate small-town America in the heart of the AmazonIn 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. Fords 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. Fordlandias eventual demise as a rubber plantation foreshadowed the practices that today are laying waste to the rain forest.More than a parable of one mans arrogant attempt to force his will on the natural world,Fordlandiadepicts 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, Fords great delusion was not that the Amazon could be tamed but that the forces of capitalism, once released, might yet be contained.Greg Grandinis the author ofEmpires Workshop,The Last Colonial Massacre, and the award-winningThe Blood of Guatemala. An associate professor of Latin American history at New York University, and a Guggenheim fellow, Grandin has served on the United Nations Truth Commission investigating the Guatemalan Civil War and has written for theLos Angeles Times,The Nation,The New Statesman, andThe New York Times.A Pulitzer Prize Finalist A National Book Award Finalist A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist 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. Fords 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. Fordlandias eventual demise as a rubber plantation foreshadowed the practices that today are laying waste to the rain forest. More than a parable of one mans arrogant attempt to force his will on the natural world,Fordlandiadepicts a quixotic mission to recreate the small-town America that the Ford factory system did much to dispatch. As Greg Grandin shows in this mordantly observed history, Fords great delusion was not that the Amazon could be tamed but that the forces of capitalism, once released, might yet be contained. Magic happens when a gifted historian and master storyteller finds a treasure trove of untapped materials to exploit. And Greg Grandins book on Fordlandia is simply magical. Here is the truly epic tale of American adventurers dispatched by Henry Ford in 1928 to conquer and civilize

Awards: National Book Awards – null  National Book Critics Circle Awards – null  New York Times Notable Books of the Year – null  Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year – null  Pulitzer Prize – null 

Fordlandia : The Rise and Fall of Henry Fords Forgotten Jungle City

Illustrated: Yes

Format: Hardcover

Height: 1.41 inches

Width: 6.5 inches

Length: 9.53 inches

Weight: 25.01 oz

Pages: 432