false 6214108 2 <P><B>The stunning, never before told story of the quixotic attempt to recreate small-town America in the heart of the Amazon</B></P><P>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. </P><P>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. </P><P>More than a parable of one man’s arrogant attempt to force his will on the natural world, <I>Fordlandia</I> 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. </P> 6394681 9 6 2009 Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City total:54|5:4|4:16|3:30|2:2|1:2| 54 180 395 18 5 1 false false Sat Mar 21 10:32:27 -0700 2009 Sat Feb 21 10:39:41 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 21 10:32:27 -0700 2009
Grandin's book is not just about "Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City" but is also a fascinating look at early 20th century industrial capitalism and the quixotic and paradoxial genius/monster ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Sep 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Nov 04 05:57:25 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 04 06:12:57 -0800 2009
This book is a ch...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jul 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 20:54:43 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 20:55:22 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Sep 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 10:09:51 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 12:23:08 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jul 30 11:27:13 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 11:27:13 -0700 2009 Mosquito Coast comes to mind) and the deadly serious flaws and oversights of ...more...]]> 0 0 false false Sun Jun 21 09:11:24 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 21 09:20:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Sat Aug 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 13 08:28:47 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 23 18:57:02 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Jun 17 09:56:52 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 17 10:00:54 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 09 15:43:39 -0700 2009 Mon Nov 02 19:01:24 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 17 05:47:51 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 17 05:49:25 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Jul 29 12:29:59 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 29 12:30:57 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Oct 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 08:11:08 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 16:15:31 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Tue Jun 16 15:51:12 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 16 15:51:30 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Nov 02 06:47:04 -0800 2009 Thu Oct 15 10:26:49 -0700 2009 Mon Nov 02 06:47:04 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 24 04:15:07 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 13 06:32:10 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Jun 26 07:33:34 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 03 08:07:59 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Jun 02 04:39:29 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 02 04:40:13 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Nov 09 09:16:20 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 09 09:16:28 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Nov 09 05:28:36 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 09 05:28:46 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Nov 08 09:30:06 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 08 09:30:11 -0800 2009