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Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City
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 the U.S. state 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.
In 1927, Henry Ford, the richest man in the world, bought a tract of land twice the size of the U.S. state 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.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published June 9, 2009
About the author
Greg Grandin
23 books383 followersGreg Grandin is the author of Fordlandia, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. A Professor of History at New York University, Grandin has published a number of other award-winning books, including Empire's Workshop, The Last Colonial Massacre, and The Blood of Guatemala.
Toni Morrison called Grandin's new work, The Empire of Necessity, "compelling, brilliant and necessary." Based on years of research on four continents, the book narrates the history of a slave-ship revolt that inspired Herman Melville's other masterpiece, Benito Cereno. Philip Gourevitch describes it as a "rare book in which the drama of the action and the drama of ideas are equally measured, a work of history and of literary reflection that is as urgent as it is timely."
Grandin has served on the United Nations Truth Commission investigating the Guatemalan Civil War and has written for the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The New Statesman, the Guardian, the London Review of Books, and The New York Times.
He received his BA from Brooklyn College, CUNY, in 1992 and his PhD from Yale in 1999. He has been a guest on Democracy Now!, The Charlie Rose Show, and the Chris Hayes Show.
Toni Morrison called Grandin's new work, The Empire of Necessity, "compelling, brilliant and necessary." Based on years of research on four continents, the book narrates the history of a slave-ship revolt that inspired Herman Melville's other masterpiece, Benito Cereno. Philip Gourevitch describes it as a "rare book in which the drama of the action and the drama of ideas are equally measured, a work of history and of literary reflection that is as urgent as it is timely."
Grandin has served on the United Nations Truth Commission investigating the Guatemalan Civil War and has written for the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The New Statesman, the Guardian, the London Review of Books, and The New York Times.
He received his BA from Brooklyn College, CUNY, in 1992 and his PhD from Yale in 1999. He has been a guest on Democracy Now!, The Charlie Rose Show, and the Chris Hayes Show.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 507 reviews
February 8, 2017
I gave this up. Rating 3-4 star for the author's writing and reportage. I just couldn't stomach the subject. The book had got as far as Ford deciding to build a city - Fordlandia - in the Amazon and kick out Indians who were in the way, employ others who looked docile and might learn, and import other workforce as needed. He wanted to cut out the middleman for rubber and have the cheapest manufacturing possible. He also wanted to utterly control the lives of all his workers.
He paid well. He expected workers to buy his cars, paying them off weekly, live in his houses, paying him rent, keeping the wife in work at Ford or else staying home. He sent in 'the morals police' to make sure that his workers were doing the right things and owned the right possessions in their homes. He lied and faked a car accident to get out of court for slandering and libelling a Jewish man (he still lost, but then he was the man who convinced Hitler that Protocols of the Elders, a fake book, was real and that Jews were the root of all evil). He hated cows too. He hated them so much he drank soy milk. I could go on... I couldn't read any more.
How I ask myself has he become a national American hero? But then Jefferson, he of the cutting out of the middleman by banning the import of slaves and breeding them for sale himself (literally himself at times) is a much revered figure. And you are all slagging off Donald Trump. This mind, the non-American mind at least, boggles.
______
Notes on reading the book. Better written than the review I scribbled off because I cannot bear to read any more of Ford.
Bit about a strange optical illusion at Santarem on the Tapajos that I experienced (everyone does who goes there). Forlandia is situated on the Tapajos river close to there.
He paid well. He expected workers to buy his cars, paying them off weekly, live in his houses, paying him rent, keeping the wife in work at Ford or else staying home. He sent in 'the morals police' to make sure that his workers were doing the right things and owned the right possessions in their homes. He lied and faked a car accident to get out of court for slandering and libelling a Jewish man (he still lost, but then he was the man who convinced Hitler that Protocols of the Elders, a fake book, was real and that Jews were the root of all evil). He hated cows too. He hated them so much he drank soy milk. I could go on... I couldn't read any more.
How I ask myself has he become a national American hero? But then Jefferson, he of the cutting out of the middleman by banning the import of slaves and breeding them for sale himself (literally himself at times) is a much revered figure. And you are all slagging off Donald Trump. This mind, the non-American mind at least, boggles.
______
Notes on reading the book. Better written than the review I scribbled off because I cannot bear to read any more of Ford.
Bit about a strange optical illusion at Santarem on the Tapajos that I experienced (everyone does who goes there). Forlandia is situated on the Tapajos river close to there.
April 22, 2023
[Revised, pictures added 4/22/23]
Fordlandia tells the story of Henry Ford's settlement in the Amazon, a model of inept planning and design. Even by pre-green standards, the arrogance and ignorance are shocking: chop down the rainforest; plant rows of rubber trees that couldn't thrive as monoculture; plank down Cape Cod bungalows on a suburban-style street grid; dress the kids in scout uniforms and send them to American-style schools named after Ford's sons.
Basically the plan was to 'convert the natives' to the American lifestyle. Ford was indeed ahead of his time but unfortunately, not in a good way. The idea of the world's foremost industrialist bulldozing the Amazon rainforest set the tone for environmental disasters to come. Even in the late 1920s, when the settlement was started, many scientists of the time could have predicted failure.
But Ford, arrogant and impatient, so undervalued expertise other than his own that he even cultivated the (erroneous) belief that he was illiterate.
Greg Grandin's book is readable and retains interest but jumps around chronologically. Some chapters are mini-biographies of key figures in the project so we get the feeling of going over the same territory several times. Still worth a read. It's well illustrated with back-and-white photos.
Top image from wbur.org
Workers from Henry Ford Collection on allthatsinteresting.com
Photo from the book on americanscientist.org
Fordlandia tells the story of Henry Ford's settlement in the Amazon, a model of inept planning and design. Even by pre-green standards, the arrogance and ignorance are shocking: chop down the rainforest; plant rows of rubber trees that couldn't thrive as monoculture; plank down Cape Cod bungalows on a suburban-style street grid; dress the kids in scout uniforms and send them to American-style schools named after Ford's sons.
Basically the plan was to 'convert the natives' to the American lifestyle. Ford was indeed ahead of his time but unfortunately, not in a good way. The idea of the world's foremost industrialist bulldozing the Amazon rainforest set the tone for environmental disasters to come. Even in the late 1920s, when the settlement was started, many scientists of the time could have predicted failure.
But Ford, arrogant and impatient, so undervalued expertise other than his own that he even cultivated the (erroneous) belief that he was illiterate.
Greg Grandin's book is readable and retains interest but jumps around chronologically. Some chapters are mini-biographies of key figures in the project so we get the feeling of going over the same territory several times. Still worth a read. It's well illustrated with back-and-white photos.
Top image from wbur.org
Workers from Henry Ford Collection on allthatsinteresting.com
Photo from the book on americanscientist.org
May 9, 2015
UPDATE: Rereading (relistening to the excellent audiobook) and finding it fascinating the second time around. As with a lot of information-rich books, this one has a great deal to absorb.
This reads like dystopian fiction, but it's the true story of Henry Ford's maniacal ego, as evidenced by his ill-fated attempt to create a sort of Main Street USA on the banks of the Amazon - complete with MANDATORY square dancing. Yikes, people. Ford hated his own son, admired Hitler, hired armed thugs to put down labor organizers, and dreamed of a utopian paradise whose moral values he would impose upon the families who relied on his factories for employment. The name "Fordlandia" is not the author's conceit; it's the name Ford chose for his failed utopia in the Brazilian wilderness. Fascinating, scary, and a kick in the derrière for those of us who are sometimes gulled into accepting corporate public relations as history.
This reads like dystopian fiction, but it's the true story of Henry Ford's maniacal ego, as evidenced by his ill-fated attempt to create a sort of Main Street USA on the banks of the Amazon - complete with MANDATORY square dancing. Yikes, people. Ford hated his own son, admired Hitler, hired armed thugs to put down labor organizers, and dreamed of a utopian paradise whose moral values he would impose upon the families who relied on his factories for employment. The name "Fordlandia" is not the author's conceit; it's the name Ford chose for his failed utopia in the Brazilian wilderness. Fascinating, scary, and a kick in the derrière for those of us who are sometimes gulled into accepting corporate public relations as history.
November 15, 2009
“What happened here?”
I say that a lot.
For a person who likes decay and ruin, New Mexico is an entropy-enthusiasts wet dream. My hobby is exploring ghost towns. Love ‘em, and can’t explain why. You want to find a town taken off the maps a century ago? Chances are I can take you there.
The other morning, I was getting my hit of DarkRoastedBlend.com and came across a picture of an abandoned street of perfectly preserved clapboard houses complete with porches and picket fences. The caption read ‘Fordlandia.’
What? In the friggin Amazon? Are you kidding me? Oh man. Me want now go there.
But, maybe I should read the book first.
In the 1920’s Harvey Firestone controlled world wide production of rubber. In an attempt to be free of this monopoly, Henry Ford bought a swath of land in the Amazon the size of Tennessee. Not only did he plan to harvest rubber on a massive scale, he planned on developing a utopian community with high moral standards, living with Christian values living white Cape Cod houses placed along paved streets circling Main Street repeat with churches, country stores, movie theaters and ice cream parlors.
By the 1920’s Dearborn, MI had been decimated by the massive scale of Ford’s industrialization. He even hired well known architects to design new factories, photographers to try and make them look arty to the outside world and artists (Diego Rivera) to prettify some of the walls. But to no avail. It was ugly, debilitating and demoralizing on an enormous scale. Ford had begun the quirky obsession of thinking back to earlier times before the gargantuan factories (that he built) ruined the landscape. He started collecting Americana from the 19th century. When his chance to start over appeared with his acquisition of nice size portion of Brazil he ordered architects to start drawing up maps of his impression of the ideal American town.
The entire project seems to be ill-conceived. The boats were too big to reach the land by river; the slash and burn method of clearing the land left rubble that still required heavy equipment; the land was supposed to be mosquito free—it wasn’t; Ford’s engineers had to steal the rubber tree seeds—they stole the wrong ones; the promised labor force never materialized—the ‘hunter/gatherer’ indigenous population could have given a rats ass for $6 a day; and on and on.
This tale if dystopian malaise is told from two perspectives: the actual mismanaged events occurring in the jungle—and the perception of these events in the mind of Mr. Ford.
The book is full of details that make you shake your head and utter “what were they thinking?” The houses for example had cement floors, tin roofs and screens on the windows. They were ovens that kept the bug IN. Ford managers couldn’t figure out why they families lived in the yards. The lumber Ford was going to sell for profit until the rubber trees were ready to produce was hard and green. As soon as it was felled, it started rotting. Every employee had to take a daily dose of quinine which had deleterious effects. Managers lasted only a few months before replacements would have to be sent from Michigan.
There’s no doubt this is a fascinating story. With a good story teller, this would be a rip-snorter with all the political intrigue, riots, and one disaster after another. Unfortunately this author has told a great story in dry witless manor. I don’t think it possible to be more boring. This is a 20th Century ‘Fitzcarraldo’ for gosh sakes. So many times I thought ‘there are some great missed opportunities to tell events in an interesting way.’ I wanted it to be better. I wanted David McCullough.
Great bit of history. Lackluster writing.
I say that a lot.
For a person who likes decay and ruin, New Mexico is an entropy-enthusiasts wet dream. My hobby is exploring ghost towns. Love ‘em, and can’t explain why. You want to find a town taken off the maps a century ago? Chances are I can take you there.
The other morning, I was getting my hit of DarkRoastedBlend.com and came across a picture of an abandoned street of perfectly preserved clapboard houses complete with porches and picket fences. The caption read ‘Fordlandia.’
What? In the friggin Amazon? Are you kidding me? Oh man. Me want now go there.
But, maybe I should read the book first.
In the 1920’s Harvey Firestone controlled world wide production of rubber. In an attempt to be free of this monopoly, Henry Ford bought a swath of land in the Amazon the size of Tennessee. Not only did he plan to harvest rubber on a massive scale, he planned on developing a utopian community with high moral standards, living with Christian values living white Cape Cod houses placed along paved streets circling Main Street repeat with churches, country stores, movie theaters and ice cream parlors.
By the 1920’s Dearborn, MI had been decimated by the massive scale of Ford’s industrialization. He even hired well known architects to design new factories, photographers to try and make them look arty to the outside world and artists (Diego Rivera) to prettify some of the walls. But to no avail. It was ugly, debilitating and demoralizing on an enormous scale. Ford had begun the quirky obsession of thinking back to earlier times before the gargantuan factories (that he built) ruined the landscape. He started collecting Americana from the 19th century. When his chance to start over appeared with his acquisition of nice size portion of Brazil he ordered architects to start drawing up maps of his impression of the ideal American town.
The entire project seems to be ill-conceived. The boats were too big to reach the land by river; the slash and burn method of clearing the land left rubble that still required heavy equipment; the land was supposed to be mosquito free—it wasn’t; Ford’s engineers had to steal the rubber tree seeds—they stole the wrong ones; the promised labor force never materialized—the ‘hunter/gatherer’ indigenous population could have given a rats ass for $6 a day; and on and on.
This tale if dystopian malaise is told from two perspectives: the actual mismanaged events occurring in the jungle—and the perception of these events in the mind of Mr. Ford.
The book is full of details that make you shake your head and utter “what were they thinking?” The houses for example had cement floors, tin roofs and screens on the windows. They were ovens that kept the bug IN. Ford managers couldn’t figure out why they families lived in the yards. The lumber Ford was going to sell for profit until the rubber trees were ready to produce was hard and green. As soon as it was felled, it started rotting. Every employee had to take a daily dose of quinine which had deleterious effects. Managers lasted only a few months before replacements would have to be sent from Michigan.
There’s no doubt this is a fascinating story. With a good story teller, this would be a rip-snorter with all the political intrigue, riots, and one disaster after another. Unfortunately this author has told a great story in dry witless manor. I don’t think it possible to be more boring. This is a 20th Century ‘Fitzcarraldo’ for gosh sakes. So many times I thought ‘there are some great missed opportunities to tell events in an interesting way.’ I wanted it to be better. I wanted David McCullough.
Great bit of history. Lackluster writing.
May 6, 2011
The subject matter of this book is interesting, but unfortunately it was a real slog for me. I think it was just that Grandin put in SO MUCH detail and information that it was overwhelming. I mean, it's really good to be thorough in your research, and to back up what you're saying, but no one should EVER have to write another book about this subject EVER AGAIN, because they can't possibly find any more information that Grandin didn't include.
That said, my overall impressions were that Ford was a rotter and the whole idea of Fordlandia was VERY poorly executed, paying no attention to botany, climate and other environmental factors OR to the social and cultural climate of the area. The last chapter, discussing how capitalism and industry have affected the Amazon right up to today (well, to 2009), disgusted me to the point that it almost made me physically nauseous. These are the things we don't think about when we visit the supermarket, or buy a new car that contains steel and plastic created by really despicable practices.
I learned a lot, and the book made me think... it just took me FOREVER to get through it.
That said, my overall impressions were that Ford was a rotter and the whole idea of Fordlandia was VERY poorly executed, paying no attention to botany, climate and other environmental factors OR to the social and cultural climate of the area. The last chapter, discussing how capitalism and industry have affected the Amazon right up to today (well, to 2009), disgusted me to the point that it almost made me physically nauseous. These are the things we don't think about when we visit the supermarket, or buy a new car that contains steel and plastic created by really despicable practices.
I learned a lot, and the book made me think... it just took me FOREVER to get through it.
July 18, 2022
I truly enjoyed this nonfiction story of Henry Ford and the creation of his utopian city, Fordlandia, built along the Amazon in the 1920’s for the sole purpose of growing rubber trees and harvesting the latex from them for tires. He actually abandoned the first location after having an entire city built and had a second city built further upstream when the administrators he assigned to create the place determined that the first location wasn’t suitable. This is an ongoing theme of this book- that Ford demanded certain things that were not researched or investigated first, and then they turned out to be colossal failures. And that the Amazon and it’s indigenous people would not be tamed by a capitalistic icon.
Lots of fascinating information about Henry Ford, Edsel, and Ford’s friendships with Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Lindbergh and others are included complete with extensive source work and direct quotes.
Ford was such a man of opposing views and actions.
On the one hand he was the first to offer a $5/day wage for all of his workers along with healthcare benefits, which was substantially more than anyone else was paying, he extolled the value of fresh family gardens and morally acceptable extracurricular activities, education, and healthy living, while vocally promoting pacifism, a distrust of government involvement in business, and contributing to the greater good through his concerns over workers’ well being.
However, on the other hand, he verbally and publicly abused and shamed his only son, Edsel, blocking many of Edsel’s attempts to improve the company (like by having an accounting department), he knowingly employed in a leadership role, a horrible man who treated the employees with threats, intimidation, and brutality to the point of death for some of them. He also was a known anti-Semite and put demands on his employees in the Amazon that caused an uprising and a riot that burned most of the town down. His factories were used to make weapons of war for WWII, even though he was a professed pacifist.
He created and built Greenfield Village, because his own innovations were creating Detroit’s expansion to the extent that rural farmland was being eaten up and his own childhood home had to be moved.
He was a huge proponent of finding uses for soybeans because he felt farmers needed a crop they could profit from. Ironically, soybean production is now one of the most damaging industries to the Amazon Rainforest.
He was hands off in the development of Fordlandia and sent his leaders down there to create and manage it- without proper preparation- and although they created a self-sufficient city , complete with a state of the art hospital, movie theaters, shops, lumber mill, and homes for all the employees, the project was fraught with problems from the start. Over the 20 or so years it was operational, they never produced enough rubber to make a profit and in fact, he lost millions on it. He never set foot on the property either. To this day, (or at least the publication of this book- 2008) people live in the second city he created and the remains of Fordlandia exist.
This was a well written, intriguing book that makes me want to read more about Henry Ford. I agree with the critics that the author often repeated himself and the way he laid out the book was sometimes hard to follow. Still, I really enjoyed reading it and would highly recommend it.
Lots of photos are included as well.
Lots of fascinating information about Henry Ford, Edsel, and Ford’s friendships with Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Lindbergh and others are included complete with extensive source work and direct quotes.
Ford was such a man of opposing views and actions.
On the one hand he was the first to offer a $5/day wage for all of his workers along with healthcare benefits, which was substantially more than anyone else was paying, he extolled the value of fresh family gardens and morally acceptable extracurricular activities, education, and healthy living, while vocally promoting pacifism, a distrust of government involvement in business, and contributing to the greater good through his concerns over workers’ well being.
However, on the other hand, he verbally and publicly abused and shamed his only son, Edsel, blocking many of Edsel’s attempts to improve the company (like by having an accounting department), he knowingly employed in a leadership role, a horrible man who treated the employees with threats, intimidation, and brutality to the point of death for some of them. He also was a known anti-Semite and put demands on his employees in the Amazon that caused an uprising and a riot that burned most of the town down. His factories were used to make weapons of war for WWII, even though he was a professed pacifist.
He created and built Greenfield Village, because his own innovations were creating Detroit’s expansion to the extent that rural farmland was being eaten up and his own childhood home had to be moved.
He was a huge proponent of finding uses for soybeans because he felt farmers needed a crop they could profit from. Ironically, soybean production is now one of the most damaging industries to the Amazon Rainforest.
He was hands off in the development of Fordlandia and sent his leaders down there to create and manage it- without proper preparation- and although they created a self-sufficient city , complete with a state of the art hospital, movie theaters, shops, lumber mill, and homes for all the employees, the project was fraught with problems from the start. Over the 20 or so years it was operational, they never produced enough rubber to make a profit and in fact, he lost millions on it. He never set foot on the property either. To this day, (or at least the publication of this book- 2008) people live in the second city he created and the remains of Fordlandia exist.
This was a well written, intriguing book that makes me want to read more about Henry Ford. I agree with the critics that the author often repeated himself and the way he laid out the book was sometimes hard to follow. Still, I really enjoyed reading it and would highly recommend it.
Lots of photos are included as well.
December 1, 2012
When I started this, I thought there was far too much bio of Henry Ford. I was impatient for the Fordlandia adventure to begin. Later I realized how the introductory biography was necessary. Grandin shows how this project defined and reflected the can-do spirit and utter naiveté of Henry Ford.
While not the first of Ford's company towns, Fordlandia was surely his biggest project. The text and photos show the tremendous scale. It was planned to span a region the size of the State of Connecticut. The expense was enormous. Large portions of the jungle were cleared and rubber trees planted. Just the enterprise of planning and constructing just a hospital, or a school, or just a row of houses in a remote location prior to the prefab innovation is huge. In an amazingly short period of time construction of this and more was completed and planting begun. They also built a very established looking lumber mill. Later, the jungle was tamed to include a golf course and a swimming pool. The scale is amazing.
It is sad that the energy that went into this went no where. It appears that "learn by doing management" is a hit and miss affair. To run a commercial farm, you need to know about agriculture and if you don't know, you have to know who does. Henry Ford, who bootstrapped his auto plants, thought that he could follow his gut... throw money at.. whatever ... and have a success in a place where he knew nothing of the people, culture or the nature of producing the designated product.
I particularly liked the discussions of the character of Ford, descriptions of the people who came from the US, Brazil, and other places to work in Fordlandia, the Diego Rivera murals and the ultimate fate of the town.
I highly recommend this for readers of general history. If you're interested in a book on a similar topic, "The Canal Builders: Making America's Empire at the Panama Canal" tells the story of the workers who built the canal is a good read.
While not the first of Ford's company towns, Fordlandia was surely his biggest project. The text and photos show the tremendous scale. It was planned to span a region the size of the State of Connecticut. The expense was enormous. Large portions of the jungle were cleared and rubber trees planted. Just the enterprise of planning and constructing just a hospital, or a school, or just a row of houses in a remote location prior to the prefab innovation is huge. In an amazingly short period of time construction of this and more was completed and planting begun. They also built a very established looking lumber mill. Later, the jungle was tamed to include a golf course and a swimming pool. The scale is amazing.
It is sad that the energy that went into this went no where. It appears that "learn by doing management" is a hit and miss affair. To run a commercial farm, you need to know about agriculture and if you don't know, you have to know who does. Henry Ford, who bootstrapped his auto plants, thought that he could follow his gut... throw money at.. whatever ... and have a success in a place where he knew nothing of the people, culture or the nature of producing the designated product.
I particularly liked the discussions of the character of Ford, descriptions of the people who came from the US, Brazil, and other places to work in Fordlandia, the Diego Rivera murals and the ultimate fate of the town.
I highly recommend this for readers of general history. If you're interested in a book on a similar topic, "The Canal Builders: Making America's Empire at the Panama Canal" tells the story of the workers who built the canal is a good read.
October 10, 2019
A única coisa mais incrível em toda a história que envolve a criação e o fracasso de Fordlândia é o quão pouco conhecida sua história é no Brasil. O livro do norte-americano Greg Grandin, Fordlândia – Ascensão e queda da cidade esquecida de Henry Ford na selva, resgata não somente a história da cidade, mas a história do homem que a construiu sem nunca a conhecer — e que ajudou a moldar o século vinte.
Grandin habilmente separa três contextos: quem Henry Ford foi, o que fez, e por quê fez o que fez. Se você nunca ouviu falar dele antes: sim, é o mesmo Ford que criou os carros Ford — aquele que dizia que você poderia ter o Ford Modelo-T na cor que quisesse, “contanto que fosse preto”. Mais do que isso, criou o conceito da linha de montagem de fábrica, que revolucionou a produção industrial no começo do século vinte. Foi graças a isso que o automóvel deixou de ser um produto feito de modo artesanal, sob encomenda, e passou a ser produzido de forma massiva.
Porém, como muitos notaram (Chaplin dentre esses muitos, no seu Tempos Modernos), havia um problema: a alienação. A linha de montagem consistia em separar e individualizar cada parte do processo, de modo que o operário que torce aquele parafuso não faz ideia de como seu trabalho se encaixa no processo como um todo. Não é exagero quem nota o fio de pensamento alienante que conduz da linha de montagem ao campo de concentração nazista — a industrialização do assassinato, produzida por uma sociedade que cumpria ordens sem ter exata certeza do que estava fazendo. Ainda que Henry Ford fosse admirado por Hitler não apenas por sua visão industrial, mas também por seu aberto antissemitismo.
Construída no final da década de 1920, Fordlândia foi a união de duas visões de Ford — uma prática, e outra utópica. A prática era que, àquela altura, a indústria automobilística necessitava de borracha para seus pneus, e a borracha estava no Brasil. A região Norte vivia o auge do ciclo da extração da borracha, Manaus e Belém eram metrópoles de inspiração parisiense e centros culturais que abrigavam grandes casas de ópera, tudo graças às seringueiras amazônicas. Construir sua própria vila operária no meio da selva era uma forma de ter acesso direto à borracha, sem intermediários.
A visão utópica era que, a essas alturas, Ford começava a se tornar nostálgico das pequenas cidades americanas, anteriores à invenção do automóvel e das grandes fábricas. Ou, como seus críticos perceberam: sentia saudades de um mundo que ele próprio ajudou a encerrar.
Mas Ford não acreditava em pesquisas, aliás, as detestava. Como todo self made man, dava grande valor à sua própria capacidade autodidata, e impunha a experiência prática sobre a pesquisa. Seus técnicos chegaram ao Pará, escolheram um local sem grandes critérios, ergueram uma perfeita cidade americana no meio da selva amazônica, e só então se deram ao trabalho de pesquisar, afinal, como se planta uma seringueira.
Ao menos, Ford tinha dinheiro para comprar tempo. E Fordlândia oferecia salários acima da média, moradias de subúrbio norte-americano e serviços públicos de qualidade. O que deu errado?
O que deu errado foi que os técnicos da Ford não previram o clima do Pará, nem os insetos que atormentavam no meio da selva, nem a inacessibilidade do local, a nove horas de balsa pelo Rio Tapajós. O terreno escolhido não era o ideal para plantar seringueiras. A imposição de hambúrguer e batata frita no refeitório se mostrou impopular para operários que preferiam um bom arroz com feijão.
O comércio era estritamente controlado, e bebidas alcoólicas eram proibidas: nos EUA ainda vigorava a Lei Seca, que no Brasil não existia. Impor uma legislação estrangeira puritana em terras brasileiras se mostrou complicado. O “jeitinho brasileiro” foi burlar a lei de Fordlândia por meio de rio, balsas se incumbiam do comércio informal.
Mas o que se mostrou catastrófico foi a imposição do cartão-ponto: era praticamente impossível ir e voltar do meio da selva para bater o cartão ponto no horário de almoço, em meio ao calor amazônico e às dificuldades do terreno. E a intransigência da chefia em exigir que o ponto fosse batido com pontualidade gerou conflitos: a população de Fordlândia se revoltou e saiu à rua armada, aos gritos de “morte aos americanos”. A chefia precisou fugir da cidade às pressas.
Fordlândia é considerada hoje uma cidade-fantasma. O livro de Grandin, mais do que um resgate histórico de uma “cidade perdida” incrivelmente recente, é o retrato do resultado de uma mentalidade que ainda hoje nos assombra: o de tentar gerir uma sociedade civil com a mentalidade de uma empresa privada.
Grandin habilmente separa três contextos: quem Henry Ford foi, o que fez, e por quê fez o que fez. Se você nunca ouviu falar dele antes: sim, é o mesmo Ford que criou os carros Ford — aquele que dizia que você poderia ter o Ford Modelo-T na cor que quisesse, “contanto que fosse preto”. Mais do que isso, criou o conceito da linha de montagem de fábrica, que revolucionou a produção industrial no começo do século vinte. Foi graças a isso que o automóvel deixou de ser um produto feito de modo artesanal, sob encomenda, e passou a ser produzido de forma massiva.
Porém, como muitos notaram (Chaplin dentre esses muitos, no seu Tempos Modernos), havia um problema: a alienação. A linha de montagem consistia em separar e individualizar cada parte do processo, de modo que o operário que torce aquele parafuso não faz ideia de como seu trabalho se encaixa no processo como um todo. Não é exagero quem nota o fio de pensamento alienante que conduz da linha de montagem ao campo de concentração nazista — a industrialização do assassinato, produzida por uma sociedade que cumpria ordens sem ter exata certeza do que estava fazendo. Ainda que Henry Ford fosse admirado por Hitler não apenas por sua visão industrial, mas também por seu aberto antissemitismo.
Construída no final da década de 1920, Fordlândia foi a união de duas visões de Ford — uma prática, e outra utópica. A prática era que, àquela altura, a indústria automobilística necessitava de borracha para seus pneus, e a borracha estava no Brasil. A região Norte vivia o auge do ciclo da extração da borracha, Manaus e Belém eram metrópoles de inspiração parisiense e centros culturais que abrigavam grandes casas de ópera, tudo graças às seringueiras amazônicas. Construir sua própria vila operária no meio da selva era uma forma de ter acesso direto à borracha, sem intermediários.
A visão utópica era que, a essas alturas, Ford começava a se tornar nostálgico das pequenas cidades americanas, anteriores à invenção do automóvel e das grandes fábricas. Ou, como seus críticos perceberam: sentia saudades de um mundo que ele próprio ajudou a encerrar.
Mas Ford não acreditava em pesquisas, aliás, as detestava. Como todo self made man, dava grande valor à sua própria capacidade autodidata, e impunha a experiência prática sobre a pesquisa. Seus técnicos chegaram ao Pará, escolheram um local sem grandes critérios, ergueram uma perfeita cidade americana no meio da selva amazônica, e só então se deram ao trabalho de pesquisar, afinal, como se planta uma seringueira.
Ao menos, Ford tinha dinheiro para comprar tempo. E Fordlândia oferecia salários acima da média, moradias de subúrbio norte-americano e serviços públicos de qualidade. O que deu errado?
O que deu errado foi que os técnicos da Ford não previram o clima do Pará, nem os insetos que atormentavam no meio da selva, nem a inacessibilidade do local, a nove horas de balsa pelo Rio Tapajós. O terreno escolhido não era o ideal para plantar seringueiras. A imposição de hambúrguer e batata frita no refeitório se mostrou impopular para operários que preferiam um bom arroz com feijão.
O comércio era estritamente controlado, e bebidas alcoólicas eram proibidas: nos EUA ainda vigorava a Lei Seca, que no Brasil não existia. Impor uma legislação estrangeira puritana em terras brasileiras se mostrou complicado. O “jeitinho brasileiro” foi burlar a lei de Fordlândia por meio de rio, balsas se incumbiam do comércio informal.
Mas o que se mostrou catastrófico foi a imposição do cartão-ponto: era praticamente impossível ir e voltar do meio da selva para bater o cartão ponto no horário de almoço, em meio ao calor amazônico e às dificuldades do terreno. E a intransigência da chefia em exigir que o ponto fosse batido com pontualidade gerou conflitos: a população de Fordlândia se revoltou e saiu à rua armada, aos gritos de “morte aos americanos”. A chefia precisou fugir da cidade às pressas.
Fordlândia é considerada hoje uma cidade-fantasma. O livro de Grandin, mais do que um resgate histórico de uma “cidade perdida” incrivelmente recente, é o retrato do resultado de uma mentalidade que ainda hoje nos assombra: o de tentar gerir uma sociedade civil com a mentalidade de uma empresa privada.
September 17, 2009
Hmm. At times, I really liked this story of the Ford Motor Company's Brazil rubber plantation--it is an interesting story, well told. The management and other problems that plagued the plantation make for good reading. What I have a hard time swallowing is author Grandin's assertion that the story proves somehow that capitalism is bad. This really isn't a story about capitalism, even. I'm puzzled at many of the author's assertions. For example, the author seems to believe that because parts of consumer goods are produced in different countries, that means that "there is no relationship . . . between wages(paid) to make products. . . and profits received from selling them." Huh? He also says that trying to produce goods cheaply produces "a race to the bottom, a system of perpetual deindustrialization"
In all the railing against "capitalism" the author never once defines the term or what he means by the term, simply applying it to anything he does not like.
Then there is the interesting assertion that Ford employees were once some of the highest paid in the world but now make a fraction of what they made thirty years ago. Come again? Perhaps the author would care to spell out exactly what criteria he used to come up with this? I can only guess at what he means by this as he does not spell it out. Does he take into account inflation? Productivity? Comparisons with other workers in other countries in inflation-controlled units? Perhaps the author needs some coursework in economics or economic writing. It's too bad the last chapter sort of spoiled the much stronger body of the book where the author just told what happened without editorializing.
In all the railing against "capitalism" the author never once defines the term or what he means by the term, simply applying it to anything he does not like.
Then there is the interesting assertion that Ford employees were once some of the highest paid in the world but now make a fraction of what they made thirty years ago. Come again? Perhaps the author would care to spell out exactly what criteria he used to come up with this? I can only guess at what he means by this as he does not spell it out. Does he take into account inflation? Productivity? Comparisons with other workers in other countries in inflation-controlled units? Perhaps the author needs some coursework in economics or economic writing. It's too bad the last chapter sort of spoiled the much stronger body of the book where the author just told what happened without editorializing.
September 26, 2013
HENRY FORDS AMAZONIAN ANTICS
Ford's emblematic Model-T automobile and his pioneering production methods made him a very rich man in the early part of the twentieth century. He was also a man of contradictions. On one hand he was talking up combined agricultural-industrial small communities, promoting pacifism and "freedom", paid high wages and was very critical of concentrated economic power whether on Wall Street or in the Energy Trusts. But at the same time his company was one of the biggest in the States, he manufactured arms during World War 1, was a very public anti-Semite and hired a notorious thug with Mafia connections along with 3,000 Goons to make sure his workers were divided, unable to form unions and policed at work and in their private lives. Not a man one would mark down as being balanced.
One expression of his lack of balance was the purchasing of a vast tract of the Amazon to turn into a vast rubber plantation to make his company independent of the Imperial rubber concerns of Asia. The story of this enterprise forms the subject of Grandin's book "Fordlandia".
The author is a specialist on Latin America, who served on the UN commission into human rights abuses during the Guatemalan Civil War and has written copiously on the continent including the excellent "Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism". This background serves him admirably well in this book, though it isn't quite as compelling as the earlier work. He flits back and forth between Dearborn in Michigan (Ford's base) and the Amazon to tell the story of Fordlandia's conception, development and eventual collapse. The story of Fordlandia is intertwined with that of Ford, the man and the motor company, and I learned much that I didn't know of about both. Grandin doesn't stint on the background either, included are brief histories of rubber and its ecology, of Brazil, of the many personalities involved in the project in Brazil and the United States, and much else besides. The book goes beyond Fordlandia's demise and tells the story of what happened after it was sold to the Brazilian government at the end of World War 2 for a pittance after Ford had sunk tens of millions of dollars into it with little rubber to show. The last chapter covers recent developments, and prospects, for the Amazon basin as a whole and makes for sober reading.
The book contains a number of contemporary photographs, is generally clearly written, though the occasional flitting back and forward in time as well as space can be a little disconcerting. The Story of Fordlandia itself doesn't live up to the blurb on the back cover - "haunting... Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" resonates on every page". Well not in the book I read. What the reader will instead get is a history of Ford himself, his colony and his company - and it is the interaction between the three that makes for an interesting read.
Ford's emblematic Model-T automobile and his pioneering production methods made him a very rich man in the early part of the twentieth century. He was also a man of contradictions. On one hand he was talking up combined agricultural-industrial small communities, promoting pacifism and "freedom", paid high wages and was very critical of concentrated economic power whether on Wall Street or in the Energy Trusts. But at the same time his company was one of the biggest in the States, he manufactured arms during World War 1, was a very public anti-Semite and hired a notorious thug with Mafia connections along with 3,000 Goons to make sure his workers were divided, unable to form unions and policed at work and in their private lives. Not a man one would mark down as being balanced.
One expression of his lack of balance was the purchasing of a vast tract of the Amazon to turn into a vast rubber plantation to make his company independent of the Imperial rubber concerns of Asia. The story of this enterprise forms the subject of Grandin's book "Fordlandia".
The author is a specialist on Latin America, who served on the UN commission into human rights abuses during the Guatemalan Civil War and has written copiously on the continent including the excellent "Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism". This background serves him admirably well in this book, though it isn't quite as compelling as the earlier work. He flits back and forth between Dearborn in Michigan (Ford's base) and the Amazon to tell the story of Fordlandia's conception, development and eventual collapse. The story of Fordlandia is intertwined with that of Ford, the man and the motor company, and I learned much that I didn't know of about both. Grandin doesn't stint on the background either, included are brief histories of rubber and its ecology, of Brazil, of the many personalities involved in the project in Brazil and the United States, and much else besides. The book goes beyond Fordlandia's demise and tells the story of what happened after it was sold to the Brazilian government at the end of World War 2 for a pittance after Ford had sunk tens of millions of dollars into it with little rubber to show. The last chapter covers recent developments, and prospects, for the Amazon basin as a whole and makes for sober reading.
The book contains a number of contemporary photographs, is generally clearly written, though the occasional flitting back and forward in time as well as space can be a little disconcerting. The Story of Fordlandia itself doesn't live up to the blurb on the back cover - "haunting... Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" resonates on every page". Well not in the book I read. What the reader will instead get is a history of Ford himself, his colony and his company - and it is the interaction between the three that makes for an interesting read.
July 26, 2009
This sounds like an urban legend gone bad (do any go good?), so I had to read about Henry Ford's attempt to build "the American Dream" in the jungles of Brazil. The financial impetus was to grow rubber for tires and other auto parts, but by the time he started rubber prices were low and the need was no longer there. But Ford still decided to create a town to help civilize the jungle and bring American happiness worldwide. It failed of course. The most interesting part of this book is the issue of Ford trying to create the ideal small town his production line had ruined. Thanks to affordable cars the American dream was on the road and Ford never seemed to reconcile with himself for killing what he loved.
Building towns was something of an occupation for Ford. Alberta and Iron Mountain in Michigan are two industrial examples, and his Greenfield Village was nothing less that his American version of his Fordlandia experiment -- sans rubber. Other companies had done this as well, but Ford was committed to recreating the midwest in Brazil. He wanted straight roads, Cape Cod houses, a church, a town square, and a dance hall for all those square dances. He made the people overseeing it get rid of the thatched roofs and put on tin roofs, thus creating a plethora of house-sized ovens. I could go on, but picture everything you think ridiculous in such an attempt and it probably occured.
Of course, the rubber plantations did not work out either. Rubber trees grow wild in the Amazon, but them in a plantation and they share bugs and diseases quickly. Not that he gave up easily. In fact he never did give up -- it was his grandson who finally gave it all back to Brazil nearly 20 years after they started.
Grandin does a good job of avoiding the obvious themes of humanity vs nature, or the unbridled ego of a man who thinks his way of life fits elsewhere. Instead, he focuses our attention back on Ford in the U.S. and parallels how his failed attempts at building in Brazil mirrored the erosion of this company and the life he held dear back at home.
Unfortunately, Grandin spends too much time on subplots and at times the book is a stuggle to read. He tends to repeat the same information to much, and if I read one more time about Henry Wickham's stealing of rubber tree seeds to creat the Southeast Asia rubber industry, I swore the book was going threw the window. (Besides, what can you expect from a man sharing the same last name as the villian of a Jane Austen novel!) In one chapter he makes a half-hearted attempt to draw an analogy with Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but fails to make it stick. He is a professor and has done his research, so he figures he might as well share it with us. A bit more focus on the project without the extras would help.
However, all this gave me a fuller and much less pleasant understanding of Ford than I previously had. Grandin presents a balanced portrait of a bright, entrepurniaral person who cared about his workers on one hand, but was anti-Semitic and not opposed to having a union symphathizer beaten. Ford is a man of great contradictions who, because he had the resources, could make those contradictions into realities which everyone but him seemed to see. In the end the books is a tragic tale of Ford himself, with Fordlandia being just one of a list of things which went wrong in the final decades of his life.
Building towns was something of an occupation for Ford. Alberta and Iron Mountain in Michigan are two industrial examples, and his Greenfield Village was nothing less that his American version of his Fordlandia experiment -- sans rubber. Other companies had done this as well, but Ford was committed to recreating the midwest in Brazil. He wanted straight roads, Cape Cod houses, a church, a town square, and a dance hall for all those square dances. He made the people overseeing it get rid of the thatched roofs and put on tin roofs, thus creating a plethora of house-sized ovens. I could go on, but picture everything you think ridiculous in such an attempt and it probably occured.
Of course, the rubber plantations did not work out either. Rubber trees grow wild in the Amazon, but them in a plantation and they share bugs and diseases quickly. Not that he gave up easily. In fact he never did give up -- it was his grandson who finally gave it all back to Brazil nearly 20 years after they started.
Grandin does a good job of avoiding the obvious themes of humanity vs nature, or the unbridled ego of a man who thinks his way of life fits elsewhere. Instead, he focuses our attention back on Ford in the U.S. and parallels how his failed attempts at building in Brazil mirrored the erosion of this company and the life he held dear back at home.
Unfortunately, Grandin spends too much time on subplots and at times the book is a stuggle to read. He tends to repeat the same information to much, and if I read one more time about Henry Wickham's stealing of rubber tree seeds to creat the Southeast Asia rubber industry, I swore the book was going threw the window. (Besides, what can you expect from a man sharing the same last name as the villian of a Jane Austen novel!) In one chapter he makes a half-hearted attempt to draw an analogy with Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but fails to make it stick. He is a professor and has done his research, so he figures he might as well share it with us. A bit more focus on the project without the extras would help.
However, all this gave me a fuller and much less pleasant understanding of Ford than I previously had. Grandin presents a balanced portrait of a bright, entrepurniaral person who cared about his workers on one hand, but was anti-Semitic and not opposed to having a union symphathizer beaten. Ford is a man of great contradictions who, because he had the resources, could make those contradictions into realities which everyone but him seemed to see. In the end the books is a tragic tale of Ford himself, with Fordlandia being just one of a list of things which went wrong in the final decades of his life.
January 8, 2015
This look at the quirky, little-known venture of Henry Ford's business into the Amazon is interesting and fairly well-written. Readers very familiar with Ford may find it frustrating that a lot of pages are invested in information about Henry Ford and his company in Michigan. Readers less attuned to Ford will benefit from the large amount of background that helps frame the story.
Henry Ford was an enigma, a man of unexpected views. Ford was a pacifist, though one whose company converted to wartime production in WWI and WWII. He was ahead of his time on race, paying blacks the same wage he paid whites. He also had vile anti-Semitic views, which are covered in detail in this book. The car-maker was overbearing and yet, a bit of a loner.
He had seemingly inconsistent views: wanting to uphold small town values even as his assembly-line autos helped destroy the traditional small town and its traditional values. Ford heard of the debt peonage, amounting to slavery, in the gathering of rubber in the Amazon. The company needed rubber for tires. Ford decided to purchase a gigantic piece of Amazon land from Brazil and build a model company town that would pay fair wages, impose traditional American (read: Puritan) values like square-dancing and abstinence from alcohol, while providing his firm with a profitable source of rubber.
I won't spoil the book by revealing the fatal flaws in this plan.
Working in business and being trained in finance and economics, I was annoyed by this book repeatedly bringing up the theory that a company can create its own market by paying a high wage that enables its workers to buy its own products. Even if every employee did buy the employer's products (and Ford forced his workers to do so), no company can survive by only selling to its own workers. Obviously, the workers spend their wages on all manner of things and the proportion they would spend on their employer's products is small, meaning the company would not survive long. Companies need external customers. That this doesn't work should be obvious- imagine if the only people who shopped at Costco were its own workers- but the author seemed to misunderstand and then repeat the error several times.
Henry Ford was an enigma, a man of unexpected views. Ford was a pacifist, though one whose company converted to wartime production in WWI and WWII. He was ahead of his time on race, paying blacks the same wage he paid whites. He also had vile anti-Semitic views, which are covered in detail in this book. The car-maker was overbearing and yet, a bit of a loner.
He had seemingly inconsistent views: wanting to uphold small town values even as his assembly-line autos helped destroy the traditional small town and its traditional values. Ford heard of the debt peonage, amounting to slavery, in the gathering of rubber in the Amazon. The company needed rubber for tires. Ford decided to purchase a gigantic piece of Amazon land from Brazil and build a model company town that would pay fair wages, impose traditional American (read: Puritan) values like square-dancing and abstinence from alcohol, while providing his firm with a profitable source of rubber.
I won't spoil the book by revealing the fatal flaws in this plan.
Working in business and being trained in finance and economics, I was annoyed by this book repeatedly bringing up the theory that a company can create its own market by paying a high wage that enables its workers to buy its own products. Even if every employee did buy the employer's products (and Ford forced his workers to do so), no company can survive by only selling to its own workers. Obviously, the workers spend their wages on all manner of things and the proportion they would spend on their employer's products is small, meaning the company would not survive long. Companies need external customers. That this doesn't work should be obvious- imagine if the only people who shopped at Costco were its own workers- but the author seemed to misunderstand and then repeat the error several times.
November 29, 2009
A SLOW READ.
“For most purposes a man with a machine is better than a man without a machine…”
—Henry Ford (pg. 246)
Greg Grandin’s, ‘Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City’ is an academic look at the sociological history of Henry Ford’s industrial empire, particularly during its waning decades (1928-1948), with particular emphasis on its failed efforts to develop a commercially viable rubber plantation / American village in the Brazilian Amazon.
The story does contain many interesting asides. To whit: Henry Ford’s longstanding regard for (his elder) Thomas Edison as a mentor and a friend; his friendship with Charles Lindbergh (having actually been taken on a ten minute flight in Lindbergh’s world-famous ‘Spirit of St. Louis’ airplane) (Pg. 3); and the fact that Walt Disney, himself, once visited Fordlandia (although Henry Ford never did), in 1941 (Pg. 346), perhaps gleaning some early inspiration for Disneyland’s Jungle Boat ride, to come a decade and a half later. It was also interesting to learn that the turn in the Ford empire’s fortunes where accompanied, in early 1932, by the publication of “Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World,’ with its forecast of a future made perverse by Fordism.” (pg. 244)
I was surprised to learn that Henry Ford might have been nearly illiterate, that he considered that “reading was like a drug habit,” is quoted as having said that “book sickness is a modern ailment,” and wondered aloud, “why should [he:] clutter [his:] mind with general information?”. (Pg. 55) Maybe he had a point. Reading is an addiction with which I can relate and it certainly does clutter the mind. [Good thing? Bad thing? :]
Recommendation: More accurately a ‘two-and-a-half star’ read, I would not suggest ‘Fordlandia’ for the top of your ‘to-read’ list, but it should be, at least, worthy of a spot on your ‘someday-aisle’.
“For most purposes a man with a machine is better than a man without a machine…”
—Henry Ford (pg. 246)
Greg Grandin’s, ‘Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City’ is an academic look at the sociological history of Henry Ford’s industrial empire, particularly during its waning decades (1928-1948), with particular emphasis on its failed efforts to develop a commercially viable rubber plantation / American village in the Brazilian Amazon.
The story does contain many interesting asides. To whit: Henry Ford’s longstanding regard for (his elder) Thomas Edison as a mentor and a friend; his friendship with Charles Lindbergh (having actually been taken on a ten minute flight in Lindbergh’s world-famous ‘Spirit of St. Louis’ airplane) (Pg. 3); and the fact that Walt Disney, himself, once visited Fordlandia (although Henry Ford never did), in 1941 (Pg. 346), perhaps gleaning some early inspiration for Disneyland’s Jungle Boat ride, to come a decade and a half later. It was also interesting to learn that the turn in the Ford empire’s fortunes where accompanied, in early 1932, by the publication of “Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World,’ with its forecast of a future made perverse by Fordism.” (pg. 244)
I was surprised to learn that Henry Ford might have been nearly illiterate, that he considered that “reading was like a drug habit,” is quoted as having said that “book sickness is a modern ailment,” and wondered aloud, “why should [he:] clutter [his:] mind with general information?”. (Pg. 55) Maybe he had a point. Reading is an addiction with which I can relate and it certainly does clutter the mind. [Good thing? Bad thing? :]
Recommendation: More accurately a ‘two-and-a-half star’ read, I would not suggest ‘Fordlandia’ for the top of your ‘to-read’ list, but it should be, at least, worthy of a spot on your ‘someday-aisle’.
November 17, 2013
This was an interesting and well-written examination of Henry Ford's experimental Fordlandia community, carved out of the Amazonian jungle at the start of the twentieth century. Ford was looking to create his own rubber supply, and at the same time put some of his ideas of a better society into action.
The author provides a well-balanced view of the creation, development and decline of Fordlandia, and also of Ford's life, work and ideals. Henry Ford saw more in his factories' success than just economic gain; he thought long and hard about how the changes he had wrought would affect society, how the principles of manufacturing could be applied to social problems, how self-sufficient and self-reliant a designed community could be, and where the 20th century was going.
Ford had his faults, including occasional anti-Semite attitudes and some sympathy with the extremist political groups of his time. He also discounted many non-essential but important human needs as not worthy of indulgence. He hated cows and loved soy products. He had an intense dislike of his own son, Edsel, and subverted many things Edsel tried to put in place. And despite his interest in social improvement, Ford employed a manager and a group of mobsters and thugs who policed his factories and factory towns, enforcing his tenets and checking up on his citizens.
Fordlandia itself was a failure. Ford and his scientists never understood that the Amazon jungle would not support what they were trying to engineer, and by the time they were starting the experiment, the bottom had fallen out of the rubber market, due to the theft of rubber tree seeds from South America and their establishment in Southeast Asia. They could not make a profit on their grand experiment, and they spend too much time and money finding that out.
All in all, a fascinating presentation and an interesting story subject.
The author provides a well-balanced view of the creation, development and decline of Fordlandia, and also of Ford's life, work and ideals. Henry Ford saw more in his factories' success than just economic gain; he thought long and hard about how the changes he had wrought would affect society, how the principles of manufacturing could be applied to social problems, how self-sufficient and self-reliant a designed community could be, and where the 20th century was going.
Ford had his faults, including occasional anti-Semite attitudes and some sympathy with the extremist political groups of his time. He also discounted many non-essential but important human needs as not worthy of indulgence. He hated cows and loved soy products. He had an intense dislike of his own son, Edsel, and subverted many things Edsel tried to put in place. And despite his interest in social improvement, Ford employed a manager and a group of mobsters and thugs who policed his factories and factory towns, enforcing his tenets and checking up on his citizens.
Fordlandia itself was a failure. Ford and his scientists never understood that the Amazon jungle would not support what they were trying to engineer, and by the time they were starting the experiment, the bottom had fallen out of the rubber market, due to the theft of rubber tree seeds from South America and their establishment in Southeast Asia. They could not make a profit on their grand experiment, and they spend too much time and money finding that out.
All in all, a fascinating presentation and an interesting story subject.
April 15, 2013
This book is about a little-known facet of Henry Ford’s career — his attempt to establish a Ford-owned rubber plantation in the Amazon. The plantation wasn’t just intended to ensure a reliable source of rubber, however; it was also an extension of his “industrial village” paradigm into the rest of the world. It was nothing short of an attempt to establish a self-sufficient, Midwestern-style American town in the middle of the jungle. Ford believed so strongly in this aim that he continued to pour billions of dollars into the plantation, even after it became obvious that it would never be an economical source of rubber.
This was not Ford's only attempt at social engineering. Most Americans are probably not familiar with Fordlandia, but many — at least those from my home state — will be aware of his more local “industrial villages," places with names like “Alberta” and “Pequaming.” These company logging towns are sometimes described as attempts at vertical integration, but they were also social experiments, meant to nurture a particular style of living and working that Ford thought favored health and happiness.
While the story of Fordlandia’s rise and fall is fascinating (and occasionally comical), what I find even more engaging is what it reveals about the complex, often contradictory nature of Henry Ford himself. In Greg Greenwood’s writing, Fordlandia becomes a parable for the aging Ford’s increasing conservatism and his longing for a version of small-town life that his own technological innovations had helped destroy. Ford, at his heart, was a visionary; he sought a better society through technology, in much the same way men like Elon Musk do today, but he lived long enough to see the world take what he’d invented in directions he didn’t anticipate.
November 9, 2011
Dense, like the rainforest, and just as rich
Note: this review first appeared on Amazon
I don't normally believe in reincarnation, but it's hard not to think I've spent some previous life in the Amazon given my favorite books - of which I now rank Fordlandia - focus on Brazil. It was great to see the other three - Thief at the End of the World, the River of Doubt, The Jungle and the Sea - all mentioned in this fascinating look at Henry Ford's failed experiment in the jungle.
This was a well-researched, highly engaging work that was, comparatively, slow going simply because there was so much to cover. It's really three books in one - the rise of Ford and the associated true beginning of the industrial age in America, the creation of Fordlandia in Brazil, and - in an unsatisfying epilogue - the current imperiled state of the Amazon as sprouted up from the attempts to industrialize natural processes (rubber harvesting). I say unsatisfying only because I wanted more.
In fact, the entire book left me hungrier for a more substantial treatment of each segment - I was surprised by how much I don't know about Ford and his factories and really wanted to know what happened to his right hand man (enforcer) Bennett. (Note: I will look into it, and suggestions are welcome - just comment on the review.)
My panama hat is off to the author for this great work. And I was especially moved by this sentence: "The arrogance, though, is not that Henry Ford thought he could tame the Amazon but that he believed that the forces of capitalism, once released, could still be contained."
Much was made of Ford never visiting his model city, but I certainly would like to make a trip there - now, after reading this - someday.
Note: this review first appeared on Amazon
I don't normally believe in reincarnation, but it's hard not to think I've spent some previous life in the Amazon given my favorite books - of which I now rank Fordlandia - focus on Brazil. It was great to see the other three - Thief at the End of the World, the River of Doubt, The Jungle and the Sea - all mentioned in this fascinating look at Henry Ford's failed experiment in the jungle.
This was a well-researched, highly engaging work that was, comparatively, slow going simply because there was so much to cover. It's really three books in one - the rise of Ford and the associated true beginning of the industrial age in America, the creation of Fordlandia in Brazil, and - in an unsatisfying epilogue - the current imperiled state of the Amazon as sprouted up from the attempts to industrialize natural processes (rubber harvesting). I say unsatisfying only because I wanted more.
In fact, the entire book left me hungrier for a more substantial treatment of each segment - I was surprised by how much I don't know about Ford and his factories and really wanted to know what happened to his right hand man (enforcer) Bennett. (Note: I will look into it, and suggestions are welcome - just comment on the review.)
My panama hat is off to the author for this great work. And I was especially moved by this sentence: "The arrogance, though, is not that Henry Ford thought he could tame the Amazon but that he believed that the forces of capitalism, once released, could still be contained."
Much was made of Ford never visiting his model city, but I certainly would like to make a trip there - now, after reading this - someday.
November 4, 2009
Henry Ford was the Bill Gates of his day - a man who took a good idea, and himself, to the heights of public consciousness. He was also a man with some quirky ideas about social engineering and the power and wealth to realize just about any project that came to his mind.
This book is a chronicle of one of those projects. A high-minded concept poorly realized. But the author puts Fordlandia, the project, in the context of the times and of the Ford empire. We learn about the incredible River Rogue complex, we learn about Fords rural factory towns (sometimes created from scratch.) Henry Ford had big ideas and the resources to execute them, almost on the whim.
This book told me a lot about the rise of industrialism and the precedent-exploding Ford way of building machinery. It also tells me about the consequences of wielding great power autonomously. I recommend "Fordlandia" if you are interested in the industrial/social history of the early twentieth century. It is a smooth read.
On a side note: Ford's second in command was Harry Bennett. Bennett is portrayed in most sources as pretty much a pure thug. Ford's enforcer. I did a little research and found that Bennett wrote an autobiography("Ford: We Never Called Him Henry"), published in 1951. I found the book on the used market and it is in my stack. I'm interested in how Bennett sees himself. One book leads to another.
This book is a chronicle of one of those projects. A high-minded concept poorly realized. But the author puts Fordlandia, the project, in the context of the times and of the Ford empire. We learn about the incredible River Rogue complex, we learn about Fords rural factory towns (sometimes created from scratch.) Henry Ford had big ideas and the resources to execute them, almost on the whim.
This book told me a lot about the rise of industrialism and the precedent-exploding Ford way of building machinery. It also tells me about the consequences of wielding great power autonomously. I recommend "Fordlandia" if you are interested in the industrial/social history of the early twentieth century. It is a smooth read.
On a side note: Ford's second in command was Harry Bennett. Bennett is portrayed in most sources as pretty much a pure thug. Ford's enforcer. I did a little research and found that Bennett wrote an autobiography("Ford: We Never Called Him Henry"), published in 1951. I found the book on the used market and it is in my stack. I'm interested in how Bennett sees himself. One book leads to another.
March 17, 2015
Ford was the god of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, which I just finished, so this seemed like a good way to learn more about the context of Huxley's book. And it was, but it's about 100 pages too long. Much of the information is repeated; the story of the genesis of the town of Alberta, for instance, pops up twice, a couple hundred pages apart. And Bennett is described at least three times. So...an editor and some tightening would have done wonders here.
Want to read
June 17, 2009Ford made a little city in the South American jungle to produce rubber. Apparently the lifestyle was a bit controlled. Henry Ford made everyone listen to square dance music. Oddly enough they did not revolt until he tried to force everyone to eat whole wheat. How is whole wheat WORSE than square dance music?!?!??!?!?!?!!??!!?!?!?!?
February 3, 2019
Fordlandia is the story of Henry Ford attempting to recreate an American factory town that would produce rubber, in the Amazon jungle in the late 1920s. It shows how naive Ford was about the jungle trying to subdue rather than adapt. Ford was as much about manufacturing cars as he was about making employees conform to his ideas. His philosophy was that if it worked in Michigan it can be duplicated anywhere! He tried to turn the Amazon into the Midwest of his imagination. He believed that hard work, high wages, and moral living could be universally applied anywhere in the world. However, this also led to it’s ultimate failure, not taking into account other cultures, other ways of doing things. Ford’s racism, his stubborn attitudes, his slash and burn tactics, and his attempt to plant rubber trees in open orchards led to failure. The rubber trees that existed in the wild were isolated from each other, protected by the canopy of the jungle for a reason. This also prevented pests and diseases from spreading tree to tree. Ford failed to see this. Ford’s example of “primitive Americanism” also failed due to the treatment of the Brazilian natives as disposable workers much like the Belgian approaches in the Congo. While there were advancements in infrastructure, education, sanitation, and medical care they were not long lasting. Also the Great Depression of the 1930’s helped bring an end to this experiment in the Amazon jungle. Grandin’s last chapter is a commentary on what is happening to the Amazon jungle today. Ironically Grandin says, the three elements of Ford’s vision; lumber, roads, and soybeans are today the primary agents of the Amazon’s ruin. A good read.
March 5, 2021
This is one of those books that I honestly do not remember how it ended up on my reading list. Probably because I either heard a review or because it was a 'notable' book. I am glad however that I did read it. The book focuses on Henry Ford's attempt to start a US style factory for rubber in Brazil in the the early 20th cent. The people, cultures, and nature all played their part in what happened to make this fail. And the book explains why and the consequences of the attempt.
I particularly liked that the author was quite balanced in his look at Ford. Both the genius and blindsidedness of Ford was considered, as were he virtues and failures. This book will illuminate a bit of history that is not usually known about one of the most important industrialists in the 2oth cent. While I would not consider this a 'must read', I would make it a strong suggestion for anyone who likes history, esp. hidden corners of history.
I particularly liked that the author was quite balanced in his look at Ford. Both the genius and blindsidedness of Ford was considered, as were he virtues and failures. This book will illuminate a bit of history that is not usually known about one of the most important industrialists in the 2oth cent. While I would not consider this a 'must read', I would make it a strong suggestion for anyone who likes history, esp. hidden corners of history.
June 5, 2015
Not sure where you should file this one in your library; we have to pick one place to put it, so lets compromise on "cautionary tale," as this is what Grandin has crafted out of this Gothic-comic horror-history "encroaching jungle" tale. He even invokes Heart of Darkness (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century), certainly an apt comparison, with the difference that the real-life Henry Ford had millions to spend sending many not-from-these-parts employees down the river in search of Kurtz. In the end, concludes Grandin, it was Ford's vision of capitalism, commerce, and culture that was destroyed by the darkness at the heart of the encroaching jungle.
Fordlandia was the name given to the first of two vast tracts of land in the Brazilian Amazon that Ford bought in 1927 to plant rubber trees and harvest it under controlled and, he expected, profitable circumstances. Turns out that rubber trees were not so amenable to domestication in the jungle, especially when Ford assigned the work to his Midwestern managers who had no expertise in either botany or Brazilian culture and economics.
Along the way, the focus of the plantations turned from the lost-cause of making a profit importing rubber to making a point exporting culture. The clash between Ford's ideals and business tactics on one side and the Amazonian climate and culture on the other was a gathering storm cloud that only a megalomaniacal businessman like Ford could have tried to overcome for as long as he did.
So what remains in the encroaching jungle are fantastic ruins of a failed utopia--not unlike those sought for in the same stretch of Amazon riverbank by explorer Percy Fawcett, a doomed attempt described by David Grann in the equally fantastic The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, Perhaps the Heart of Darkness beating in the Amazon is the always out-of-reach dream of riches that drives men to keep trying beyond reason.
Grandin's story is good at hitting all the points. The only things missing to give the book a 5-star "what a classic" rating would be more pictures comparing then and now (the few pictures in the book are inline with the text; this book needed a large glossy section of photos in the middle) and more description of how the jungle climate and Brazilian culture has taken over and reused this misplaced and forgotten Midwestern utopia.
Fordlandia was the name given to the first of two vast tracts of land in the Brazilian Amazon that Ford bought in 1927 to plant rubber trees and harvest it under controlled and, he expected, profitable circumstances. Turns out that rubber trees were not so amenable to domestication in the jungle, especially when Ford assigned the work to his Midwestern managers who had no expertise in either botany or Brazilian culture and economics.
Along the way, the focus of the plantations turned from the lost-cause of making a profit importing rubber to making a point exporting culture. The clash between Ford's ideals and business tactics on one side and the Amazonian climate and culture on the other was a gathering storm cloud that only a megalomaniacal businessman like Ford could have tried to overcome for as long as he did.
So what remains in the encroaching jungle are fantastic ruins of a failed utopia--not unlike those sought for in the same stretch of Amazon riverbank by explorer Percy Fawcett, a doomed attempt described by David Grann in the equally fantastic The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, Perhaps the Heart of Darkness beating in the Amazon is the always out-of-reach dream of riches that drives men to keep trying beyond reason.
Grandin's story is good at hitting all the points. The only things missing to give the book a 5-star "what a classic" rating would be more pictures comparing then and now (the few pictures in the book are inline with the text; this book needed a large glossy section of photos in the middle) and more description of how the jungle climate and Brazilian culture has taken over and reused this misplaced and forgotten Midwestern utopia.
April 18, 2012
I never really understood why, when growing up as a Boomer, all my elders were "Ford Men". After reading this book, I now know how influential, popular and ahead of his time Henry Ford was to so many people growing up during the heyday of the Ford empire. He was a superstar before the word was invented - a charismatic celebrity who backed up his talk with action. His company the model of a success at so many levels. Eventually of course, succumbing to gross overreaching and finally degrading into a shell of what he (and his company) was at the apogee of his career/celebrity status.
After learning about how ahead of his time he was in regard to business, self-sufficiency, systems, organic farming, alternative uses for soybeans, planned "self-sufficient communities", alternative power and recycling, I am left to wonder if many young generation X's and Y's even know that he and the civilized world was aware of and into these things back in the twenties, (nineteen twenties that is), things which are now considered "new", "ground breaking" and so prevalent in current thinking.
Fascinating! Worth a read if only to see how not so far we have really come!
After learning about how ahead of his time he was in regard to business, self-sufficiency, systems, organic farming, alternative uses for soybeans, planned "self-sufficient communities", alternative power and recycling, I am left to wonder if many young generation X's and Y's even know that he and the civilized world was aware of and into these things back in the twenties, (nineteen twenties that is), things which are now considered "new", "ground breaking" and so prevalent in current thinking.
Fascinating! Worth a read if only to see how not so far we have really come!
February 18, 2017
The real history of a people is not expressed in wars but in the way they lived and worked. The history of America wasn't written in Washington, it was written in the grass roots. Any history book that celebrates guns and speeches but ignores the harrows and the rest of daily life is bunk. Henry Ford
Except that this book totally celebtates the poilitics surrounding Fordlandia and completely ignores the people who lived there! Fascinating subject (that makes up for every Star), but what a boring read!
Except that this book totally celebtates the poilitics surrounding Fordlandia and completely ignores the people who lived there! Fascinating subject (that makes up for every Star), but what a boring read!
March 24, 2017
rubber is quite the metaphor! a well-written capitulation of a corporate banana republic reflecting 20th century American themes and trends
February 23, 2024
I have a long-standing interest in the Amazon so this looked like something worth checking out. It was good, not great perhaps but covered the strange subject of Fordlandia in sufficient detail. Henry Ford was a bizarre (and not very attractive) individual in many ways as I learned in these pages and his experimental Amazonian rubber-producing (or not) village partially reflected his personality. At times it was funny at times as Michigan (and Ford's) values and methods encountered the reality of the Amazonian climate, flora and fauna as well as the Brazilian people. As a local is quoted: Ford managers, said the priest, 'never really figured out what country they were in.'
Yet after reading the last chapter I almost felt like he wrote the entire book just to reach an end where he could then unload on Ford and capitalism generally for the current environmental assault on the Amazon rain forest. A quote from the book explains this better: "But the most profound irony is currently on display at the very site of Ford’s most ambitious attempt to realize his pastoralist vision. In the Tapajós valley, three prominent elements of Ford’s vision—lumber, which he hoped to profit from while at the same time finding ways to conserve nature; roads, which he believed would knit small towns together and create sustainable markets; and soybeans, in which he invested millions, hoping that the industrial crop would revive rural life—have become the primary agents of the Amazon’s ruin, not just of its flora and fauna but of many of its communities.”
It is a depressing litany indeed, but blaming much of that trend on Henry Ford (as dislikable as he seems) or his company from 80 to 100 years ago seems sort of lame. These are incredibly difficult global problems with manifold causes. Still it is an interesting and odd slice of history and piqued my curiosity in several new areas--Ford himself (a good biography), Dearborn (I now want to visit), and the rise of soybean agriculture (a good summary). 3.5 stars rounded up.
Yet after reading the last chapter I almost felt like he wrote the entire book just to reach an end where he could then unload on Ford and capitalism generally for the current environmental assault on the Amazon rain forest. A quote from the book explains this better: "But the most profound irony is currently on display at the very site of Ford’s most ambitious attempt to realize his pastoralist vision. In the Tapajós valley, three prominent elements of Ford’s vision—lumber, which he hoped to profit from while at the same time finding ways to conserve nature; roads, which he believed would knit small towns together and create sustainable markets; and soybeans, in which he invested millions, hoping that the industrial crop would revive rural life—have become the primary agents of the Amazon’s ruin, not just of its flora and fauna but of many of its communities.”
It is a depressing litany indeed, but blaming much of that trend on Henry Ford (as dislikable as he seems) or his company from 80 to 100 years ago seems sort of lame. These are incredibly difficult global problems with manifold causes. Still it is an interesting and odd slice of history and piqued my curiosity in several new areas--Ford himself (a good biography), Dearborn (I now want to visit), and the rise of soybean agriculture (a good summary). 3.5 stars rounded up.
January 29, 2021
This sums up working with Henry Ford by Charles Lindbergh.
"Their policy is to act first and plan afterward, usually overlooking completely essential details. Result: a tremendous increase of cost and effort unnecessarily.”
Ford in a lot of ways transformed manufacturing and the work force, but he wasn't great at conforming to something he didn't understand. From the very start of his grand experiment in the Amazon was a disaster. He sent people who had never seen a jungle to plant and build cities, like they had in Michigan. The Amazon is no Michigan. Planting season is essential. Knowing the fungus and parasites is essential. Knowing that you can only deliver goods in the wet season is essential (the river could not handle cargo ships in dry season because there wasn't enough water). People who live off land do not need steady work. They don't go hungry because they eat what is naturally grown. I felt horrible for the families sent by the Fords to make this all work. The frustration, push back and disasters was not worth it for Ford to save money on tires. in the end, they dumped about $25 million in 1920 dollars and begged the government to take it back after Henry Ford's death for $245000. Ford is looney. At best anti-Semitic, racist and a poor father. In addition, this all came about because of the action of Winston Churchill. Of course it did, all my reading ends at Churchill. Intentional or not.
"Their policy is to act first and plan afterward, usually overlooking completely essential details. Result: a tremendous increase of cost and effort unnecessarily.”
Ford in a lot of ways transformed manufacturing and the work force, but he wasn't great at conforming to something he didn't understand. From the very start of his grand experiment in the Amazon was a disaster. He sent people who had never seen a jungle to plant and build cities, like they had in Michigan. The Amazon is no Michigan. Planting season is essential. Knowing the fungus and parasites is essential. Knowing that you can only deliver goods in the wet season is essential (the river could not handle cargo ships in dry season because there wasn't enough water). People who live off land do not need steady work. They don't go hungry because they eat what is naturally grown. I felt horrible for the families sent by the Fords to make this all work. The frustration, push back and disasters was not worth it for Ford to save money on tires. in the end, they dumped about $25 million in 1920 dollars and begged the government to take it back after Henry Ford's death for $245000. Ford is looney. At best anti-Semitic, racist and a poor father. In addition, this all came about because of the action of Winston Churchill. Of course it did, all my reading ends at Churchill. Intentional or not.
July 12, 2018
Recent reports say that Werner Herzog is going to direct a TV series based on this remarkable book and the choice could not be more apt. The story of Henry Ford's quixotic attempt to transplant Michigan values to an Amazon rubber plantation reverberates with echoes of Fitzcarraldo and a touch of "Heart of Darkness." Although the story of Ford's two Amazon colonies is the main event here, much of the book is a primer on Henry Ford himself, exploring the contrasts if not outright contradictions of the man's vision and personality. It's not a pretty picture but neither is it entirely condemnatory, especially compared to the rapine being visited on the same part of the Amazon today by multinational greed. Mostly the book rings with the passage of the decades it encompasses, the war of ideologies that capitalism has apparently won played against a backdrop of nature so vast and powerful that even the power and resources of a guy like Ford were defied. Excellent history all around and I'll be in the front row for the TV series when it streams.
November 3, 2011
A Parable of Arrogance
This tale of a utopia gone wrong gets bogged down in detail at times but is ultimately worth the effort to finish. I'd run across references to Fordlandia in books I'd read about the rubber and banana trades and was intrigued to learn more about Henry Ford's quixotic attempt to build a model town -- indeed, to create a model society -- in the depths of the Amazon.
"Over the course of nearly two decades, Ford would spend tens of millions of dollars founding not one but, after the first plantation was devastated by leaf blight, two American towns, complete with central squares, sidewalks, indoor plumbing, hospitals, manicured lawns, movie theaters, swimming pools, golf courses, and, of course, Motel Ts and As milling down their paved streets."
To say that the project was doomed to failure is an understatement. Rubber simply refused to "submit to Ford-style regimentation." The rubber plantations that were set up in Fordlandia were beset by numerous problems, chief of which was that growing rubber in a concentrated plantation setting simply won't work in Brazil, where insect pests and fungal disease spread quickly in concentrated plantings. (The success of rubber plantations in Asia was largely due to the absence of these native insects and diseases.) However, according to Time magazine, Ford planned to increase its rubber plantings every year "until the whole jungle is industrialized."
Ford's ostensible reason for establishing this jungle outpost was to secure the raw materials he needed, ensuring that his Michigan auto factories would have a pipeline to an essential component. But very soon it became apparent that Ford's objective was far more extensive -- he wanted to create not just a settlement that exported latex, but a settlement that embodied his ideal society, in which workers were paid well and lived wholesome, productive lives -- in turn becoming the prosperous consumers that would buy the products that his factories produced. "With a surety of purpose and incuriosity about the world that seems all too familiar, Ford deliberately rejected expert advice and set out to turn the Amazon into the Midwest of his imagination."
I knew little about Henry Ford before reading this book, and frankly I was astonished at the perverse complexity of the man. He was a bundle of contrary impulses. What most surprised me, though, was that this genius of the assembly line, whose regimented factories revolutionized American business, was at the same time hopelessly inept in fundamental business practices and so unimaginative in many ways.
For example, Charles Lindbergh, who once worked with Ford Motor Company’s aviation division commented, “Once they [Ford's managers] get an idea, they want to start in right now and get action tomorrow, if not today. Their polity is to act first and plan afterward, usually overlooking completely essential details. Result: a tremendous increase of cost and effort unnecessarily.”
Indeed, this is precisely what happened in Brazil. An astonishing amount of waste took place, from the building of the colony to its everyday management. When Henry Ford II, Henry's grandson, took over Ford Motor Company in 1945, he turned the failed colonies of Fordlandia and Belterra (the second settlement), which were "valued at nearly $8 million, with $20 million invested in them, over to the Brazilian government for $244,200." Waste indeed.
The leit motif of the book is Ford's "frustrated idealism," underpinned by the belief that as he succeeded in industry, so he would succeed in social engineering. The mistaken belief that he could "make the world conform to his will" offers a potent lesson that still resonates today. Ford's clumsy attempts to export American values and lifestyles to the Brazilian jungle are perhaps no more misguided than, say, current attempts to graft democratic processes on other cultures.
Beyond Ford's ill-fated Brazilian enterprise, however, Fordlandia examines a modern dilemma. Ford had "let the genie out of the bottle," in the author's words, by creating a form of industrialism that disrupted human relations. Yet he was intent on trying to create a utopian version of what was being destroyed: in Michigan as well as in Brazil, he created (or attempted to create) towns that harkened back to a simpler time. We may scoff at Ford's attempt to recreate idealized communities straight from a past that never was, but the pull of the idealized past still exerts a strong influence on modern American politics and culture. Many Americans, as they feel increasingly threatened by global developments, cling to the warm security blanket of their glorious past.
The last chapter of the book is perhaps the most compelling as the the author examines how Ford’s methods of production led to a “global extension of the assembly line”:
“Yet even as Ford was preaching his gospel of 'high wages to create large markets,' Fordism as an industrial method was making the balanced, whole world Ford longed for impossible to achieve.... Instead of Ford’s virtuous circuit of high wages and decent benefits generating expanding markets, a vicious one now rules: profits are derived not from well-paid workers affluent enough to buy what they have made but from driving prices as low as they can go; this in turn renders good pay and humane benefits not only unnecessary for keeping the economy going but impossible to maintain, since the best, and at times the only, place to cut production costs is labor. The result is a race to the bottom, a system of perpetual deindustrialization whereby corporations – including, most dramatically, the Ford Motor Company itself – bow before a global economy that they once mastered, moving manufacturing abroad in order to reduce labor costs just to survive."
The author's final assessment may be depressing, but it is not, I think, an overstated one.
This tale of a utopia gone wrong gets bogged down in detail at times but is ultimately worth the effort to finish. I'd run across references to Fordlandia in books I'd read about the rubber and banana trades and was intrigued to learn more about Henry Ford's quixotic attempt to build a model town -- indeed, to create a model society -- in the depths of the Amazon.
"Over the course of nearly two decades, Ford would spend tens of millions of dollars founding not one but, after the first plantation was devastated by leaf blight, two American towns, complete with central squares, sidewalks, indoor plumbing, hospitals, manicured lawns, movie theaters, swimming pools, golf courses, and, of course, Motel Ts and As milling down their paved streets."
To say that the project was doomed to failure is an understatement. Rubber simply refused to "submit to Ford-style regimentation." The rubber plantations that were set up in Fordlandia were beset by numerous problems, chief of which was that growing rubber in a concentrated plantation setting simply won't work in Brazil, where insect pests and fungal disease spread quickly in concentrated plantings. (The success of rubber plantations in Asia was largely due to the absence of these native insects and diseases.) However, according to Time magazine, Ford planned to increase its rubber plantings every year "until the whole jungle is industrialized."
Ford's ostensible reason for establishing this jungle outpost was to secure the raw materials he needed, ensuring that his Michigan auto factories would have a pipeline to an essential component. But very soon it became apparent that Ford's objective was far more extensive -- he wanted to create not just a settlement that exported latex, but a settlement that embodied his ideal society, in which workers were paid well and lived wholesome, productive lives -- in turn becoming the prosperous consumers that would buy the products that his factories produced. "With a surety of purpose and incuriosity about the world that seems all too familiar, Ford deliberately rejected expert advice and set out to turn the Amazon into the Midwest of his imagination."
I knew little about Henry Ford before reading this book, and frankly I was astonished at the perverse complexity of the man. He was a bundle of contrary impulses. What most surprised me, though, was that this genius of the assembly line, whose regimented factories revolutionized American business, was at the same time hopelessly inept in fundamental business practices and so unimaginative in many ways.
For example, Charles Lindbergh, who once worked with Ford Motor Company’s aviation division commented, “Once they [Ford's managers] get an idea, they want to start in right now and get action tomorrow, if not today. Their polity is to act first and plan afterward, usually overlooking completely essential details. Result: a tremendous increase of cost and effort unnecessarily.”
Indeed, this is precisely what happened in Brazil. An astonishing amount of waste took place, from the building of the colony to its everyday management. When Henry Ford II, Henry's grandson, took over Ford Motor Company in 1945, he turned the failed colonies of Fordlandia and Belterra (the second settlement), which were "valued at nearly $8 million, with $20 million invested in them, over to the Brazilian government for $244,200." Waste indeed.
The leit motif of the book is Ford's "frustrated idealism," underpinned by the belief that as he succeeded in industry, so he would succeed in social engineering. The mistaken belief that he could "make the world conform to his will" offers a potent lesson that still resonates today. Ford's clumsy attempts to export American values and lifestyles to the Brazilian jungle are perhaps no more misguided than, say, current attempts to graft democratic processes on other cultures.
Beyond Ford's ill-fated Brazilian enterprise, however, Fordlandia examines a modern dilemma. Ford had "let the genie out of the bottle," in the author's words, by creating a form of industrialism that disrupted human relations. Yet he was intent on trying to create a utopian version of what was being destroyed: in Michigan as well as in Brazil, he created (or attempted to create) towns that harkened back to a simpler time. We may scoff at Ford's attempt to recreate idealized communities straight from a past that never was, but the pull of the idealized past still exerts a strong influence on modern American politics and culture. Many Americans, as they feel increasingly threatened by global developments, cling to the warm security blanket of their glorious past.
The last chapter of the book is perhaps the most compelling as the the author examines how Ford’s methods of production led to a “global extension of the assembly line”:
“Yet even as Ford was preaching his gospel of 'high wages to create large markets,' Fordism as an industrial method was making the balanced, whole world Ford longed for impossible to achieve.... Instead of Ford’s virtuous circuit of high wages and decent benefits generating expanding markets, a vicious one now rules: profits are derived not from well-paid workers affluent enough to buy what they have made but from driving prices as low as they can go; this in turn renders good pay and humane benefits not only unnecessary for keeping the economy going but impossible to maintain, since the best, and at times the only, place to cut production costs is labor. The result is a race to the bottom, a system of perpetual deindustrialization whereby corporations – including, most dramatically, the Ford Motor Company itself – bow before a global economy that they once mastered, moving manufacturing abroad in order to reduce labor costs just to survive."
The author's final assessment may be depressing, but it is not, I think, an overstated one.
June 15, 2023
Henry Ford was certainly an innovator and when he decided to buy up land in the Amazon to set up a rubber tree plantation it seemed like a great idea. He liked to have control over his products from start to finish and growing his own source of latex for rubber was in line with his thinking. Not only did he set up the area for planting rubber trees but also built homes for his workers and schools, a hospital and recreation areas.
This all sounds well and good and he did have some well-intentioned ideas like paying a decent living wage and making sure deforestation did not take place, but he failed to take into account the problems of life in a hot, humid environment. Ford also did not like to hire experts in the respective fields needed for such an undertaking, which might have nipped the whole scheme in the bud from the start. Some of the people he sent down to oversee the work tried to tell him about difficulties and the reasons why certain things were not going to plan but Ford stubbornly forged ahead.
This was a fascinating read as it tells of an amazing idea that slowly went down the drain.
This all sounds well and good and he did have some well-intentioned ideas like paying a decent living wage and making sure deforestation did not take place, but he failed to take into account the problems of life in a hot, humid environment. Ford also did not like to hire experts in the respective fields needed for such an undertaking, which might have nipped the whole scheme in the bud from the start. Some of the people he sent down to oversee the work tried to tell him about difficulties and the reasons why certain things were not going to plan but Ford stubbornly forged ahead.
This was a fascinating read as it tells of an amazing idea that slowly went down the drain.
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