Book description
From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Greg Grandin comes 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…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Fordlandia as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I'm a sucker for stories of billionaire hubris, and this is as good as they get. You know from the start that Ford’s project is doomed, and yet his grand ambition and folly string you along.
I also love that Grandin smuggles in a sharp critique of capitalism: Fordlandia may have failed, but Ford’s vision of production, turning human beings into widgets, lives on.
From Alex's list on the Amazon rainforest and the amazing people who live there.
Although Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts allude to it, I had no idea until I read Greg Grandin’s book that Henry Ford attempted to extend his auto industry empire into the Amazon by building the company town of Fordlandia in the Brazilian jungle. I am fascinated by the suspenseful narrative Grandin creates around Ford’s ultimately disastrous failure at creating his own rubber-producing teetotaling town.
From Dora's list on cities and urban decline.
If you love Fordlandia...
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German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
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