Fordlandia

The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City

By: Greg Grandin

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

In 1927, Henry Ford, the richest man in the world, bought a tract of land twice the size of Delaware in the Brazilian Amazon. His intention was to grow rubber, but the project rapidly evolved into a more ambitious bid to export America itself. Fordlandia, as the settlement was called, soon became the site of an epic clash. On one side was the lean, austere car magnate; on the other, the Amazon, the most complex ecological system on the planet. Indigenous workers rejected Ford's midwestern Puritanism, turning the place into a ribald tropical boomtown. And his efforts to apply a system of regimented mass production to the Amazon's diversity resulted in a rash environmental assault that foreshadowed many of the threats laying waste to the rain forest today.

More than a parable of one man’s arrogant attempt to force his will on the natural world, Greg Grandin's Fordlandia is "a quintessentially American fable". (Time).

©2009 Greg Grandin (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

" Fordlandia is … a genuinely readable history recounted with a novelist’s sense of pace and an eye for character. It is a significant contribution [that is] grossly enjoyable." ( Los Angeles Times)

Worth the read…

For the first part of the book I didn’t really enjoy it. So many details and it seem to be a little scattered. But then at the end it was worth the time to understand the past, and how we got to where we are today. It was eye-opening and I wish I had paid better attention at the beginning a middle part of the book. Stick to it till the end.

An eye-opening account of an arrogant man's folly

Suffice it to say that they don't say anything about this chapter of Henry Ford's life in his hometown of Dearborn, where I spent a lot of time in my childhood. Grandin depicts a man filled with hubris who seemed to think he couldn't fail at anything he tried. Yet, he failed miserably with Fordlandia, his attempt to build a worker's paradise in the Amazon -- not least because he couldn't be bothered to visit the place himelf - not even once - and was incredibly short-sighted about the realities of transferring Dearborn to the jungle. What is perhaps even more disturbing is that much of the ignorance that characterized his decisions about Fordlandia was also present in the way he ran his operations back home and saw his own place in the world. It's a tribute to the men and women that came after him that Ford Motor Co. itself has not gone the way of Fordlandia.
A short note aobut the narrator -- although his reading is a bit slow and halting, as some reviewers have noted, his pronunciation of the Brazilian words and place names is impressive and really enhanced my listening experience.

Good topic but all over the place

I feel like i chronologically never knew where i was between chapters. No continuous story/ narrative therefore artistic unity lacking. Also only feel like i dipped beneath the clouds of a 5k fr view 3 times. Read river of doubt and ford’s bio previously - so i had high hopezzz

The story of Ford's dream to create a world in the Amazon

Fordlandia is the story of Henry Ford or, as the title says “the rise and fall of Henry Ford”. It covers his background, his determination and his drive, his brilliance and his evil genius (my words). His perfecting the assembly line and use of paying $5/day (way above the going pay rate) to get the workers he needed. Sadly, he then hired a good squad to beat down any employee who dared speak of unionizing. He was also an anti-semite and a bigot. He took joy in publicly humiliating his son, Edsel.

Fordlandia is about Ford’s desire to build an American-style small town in the Amazon jungle. What is highlights is Ford’s arrogance and his foolishness. If Ford wanted something, he demanded that it be delivered, regardless of whether it was properly researched of feasible. In the Amazon, he attempted to bend the natural word to his will. His original plan was to grow rubber; however, the project took on a life of its own and evolved into an attempt to build an entire town. The result was Ford vs the natural world. The indigenous workers rejected Ford and the ethics he tried to force upon them, the managers from the US hated the jungle life and began to manipulate contracts, etc. to benefit themselves. The jungle fought back.

“The journalist Walter Lippmann identified in Henry Ford, for all his peculiarity, a common strain of "primitive Americanism." The industrialist's conviction that he could make the world conform to his will was founded on a faith that success in economic matters should, by extension, allow capitalists to try their hands "with equal success" at "every other occupation." ⭐️⭐️⭐️ At times the book is interesting and informative; unfortunately, more times than not, it is slow and plodding. By the middle I was fast scanning the pages. I kept reading thinking the pace would pick up, it did not.

Superb Expose of Arrogance & Utopianism

Where does Fordlandia rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Fordlandia ranks in the top tier of audiobooks.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Fordlandia?

Ignoring local customs and climate, Ford officials insisted that clapboard houses had to be built in the jungle--with tin roofs, making them unbearable hot.

What about Jonathan Davis’s performance did you like?

He's just a very good reader, with a nice wry tone.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Wealth, ignorance, and exploitation

Content shines through narration

I thought this was an interesting story of Henry Ford trying to impose his will on the Amazon. There are many angles at work in this story. The trees, the cultures, the people. Ford may or may not have been motivated purely on business grounds. Having such success, he was very confident in all that he did. Confident that if he just did the same things that built his empire, he could build the next stage of it. A great case study of a company moving into a new location and not understanding the locals, turning what could be new allies into potential enemies. Lessons that are still applicable today.


The narrator moves at quite a slow pace and makes it a little hard to stay engaged.

Great travel follow-up!

Terrific book after my visit to Amazonia and seeing the rainforest, river and places mentioned.

Tedious & repetitive; sad & depressing

This book of Henry Ford's unfortunate attempt to grow rubber and to instill his American Way of Life in the jungle of Brazil, is overly long and repetitive. Every problem is hashed to death, over and over. The history is probably fairly accurate, and occasional facts are interesting. The ending of the book about the long-term effects of industrialization is particularly sad....the devastation of the local Brazilians' way of life, and the destruction of the jungle ecosystem. This is one of the worst books I've ever slogged through.

Davis' reading of this book lacks flow.

Between each sentence are long pauses, and it makes the book almost impossible to get into. Because of this reading style the story loses any cadence Greg Grandin might have introduced. Listen to the sample and you will see what I mean. The whole book is like this.

Disappointing

I set this book aside many times and resumed it many times. I got through 7 hours before I had to quit. I suppose the to get to the needed book length the author had to go to extreme measures to find and elaborate on every minuscule negative detail of Fordlandia. It is a constant drumbeat throughout the book. Yes, the point of the book is that the experiment failed, but there were positives as well that get only short mention in this book. Most galling is the now frequent retelling of history using the lens of 21st century standards of conduct. The author repeatedly demeans Henry Ford for encouraging his employees to lead upright lives. Moral standards were different then. Prohibition was the law of the land, not a cockamamy idea Henry dreamed up.