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Title
Fordlandia : the rise and fall of Henry Ford's forgotten jungle city
Greg Grandin
Review
If "Fordlandia" was a TV series, I would binge-watch it on Netflix. If the writers of the show captured both the grand concept and the absurd course of events, I would give it 5 stars.
Henry Ford controlled the supply for each step in the car-manufacturing process in Detroit – glass, iron, steel, leather, power plant, and even housing for the workers – but the one thing he lacked was his own supply of rubber for his tires.
In 1927, he set out to establish his private supply of latex in Brazil. His representatives bought 2.5 million acres of Amazonian jungle and got concessions from the Brazilian government so they could rule it like a private fiefdom. They began setting up Michigan-in-the-Amazon but things slowly fell apart because Ford had sent management who knew nothing about the jungle or agriculture. They tried to impose their “healthy American values” on Brazilian workers, prohibiting alcohol and demanding that they work through the heat of the day. The leadership often focused on minor problems and neglected glaring failures. The cemetery filled up. The whole enterprise hemorrhaged money. I don't want to give away the season-ender, but there's a revolt and a bunch of American overlords fleeing to hide in the jungle.
The book is slow sometimes, but then it is redeemed by wonderful quotes, side stories, personal recollections, and good writing. The focus of this book is the doomed Fordlandia and the truly weird personal quirks of Henry Ford, but it ranges into other events and people of the era that are every bit as interesting.
I found this book after it was mentioned in One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryce, which I highly recommend also. Bill Bryce tends toward hyperbole, but he digs up obscure little facts and amazing connections between everything you think you already know.
Other books that I recommend on the theme of "Good Idea, Bad Leadership" are: The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805 by Richard Zachs. Good idea by Thomas Jefferson, bad leadership by William Easton. This book is available at the Metropolitan Public Library.
Big Chief Elizabeth by Giles Milton. Good idea by Sir Walter Raleigh and HM Elizabeth I, bad leadership by Sir Humfrey Gilbert.
The Lost City of Z by David Grann. Good idea sponsored by a London group of financiers, bad leadership by Percy Fawcett.
Cities of Gold : a journey across the American Southwest in Coronado's footsteps by Douglas Preston. Greedy idea sold to Coronado by the deceptive former slave Esteban, but events caught up with Esteban after Coronado ordered him to guide an expedition to the fabled Cities of Cibola. This story is told in the context of a modern-day quest to recreate the journey about two men on horseback and scant supplies, which was very nearly disastrous in itself. ~ Abbey Warner
Review Date
Reviewed May 2014
