Play Audiobook Sample
Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(3.01) - 1,180 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
Fordlandia by National Book Award finalist Greg Grandin tells the enthralling tale of Henry Ford's failed attempts to transform a Connecticut-sized chunk of Brazilian rainforest into a homespun slice of American utopia. "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
Download and start listening now!
"Henry Ford was an idealist and a crank. His anti-Semitism is well-known and repulsive, but I can admire some of his ideals, like his insistence on the need to pay his workers good wages and provide them with benefits like health care and his fierce pacifism, although his expression of them could be odd (like the peace ship he sent off to Europe to convince those silly Europeans to stop WWI). His arrogant willingness to meddle in other people's lives (and his firm belief that he was entitled to meddle because he knew so much better than they how they should be living) led him to set up an entire section of his company to tell employees where they should live, what their yards should look like, and how to spend their free time; another was filled with thugs to threaten, bully, beat, and even kill (by firing on a group of hunger marchers during the Depression) union-organizers and other such undesirables. In the twenties, worried about the global rubber supply and annoyed that the foreign-owned industry wasn't conforming to his wishes, he got control of a huge swath of the Amazon rainforest and decided to grow his own rubber. Despising experts and book-learned elitists, he set it up without the help of anyone who knew anything about agriculture in the Amazon, about growing rubber, about rainforest insects, or about Brazil and its people, trusting to American know-how and good old common sense to knock down all barriers to success. The towns he built there were attempts to replicate an idealised version of small-town Midwestern life that he saw disappearing around him (without, apparently, acknowledging that his own actions and products had contributed to their decline); the houses were more suited to Michigan than to tropical Brazil, and he made no concessions to local needs or circumstances (attempting to enforce American-style prohibition, for example, although no Brazilian law outlawed alcohol). It didn't go very well. Although the details have changed, the arrogance and unshakable techno-utopianism are still with us (there's no problem we can't solve with a bit of technology!), and the Amazon, among other places, is still paying the price. An important and interesting story, well-told."
— Leslie (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
-
“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
Awards
-
Finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for History
Fordlandia Listener Reviews
-
" If I were to write a book about the rise and fall of Henry Ford's socialistic experiment in the Amazonian rain forest, this would be the book. While it was incredibly long, it was at the same time incredibly detailed. There aren't many people alive today who would understand, let alone remember, the context of these events. Greg Grandin does an excellent job of telling the story while also setting the context for them. I discovered an entire era of world history in this book, not just the tale of a larger-than-life man and his eccentric quest to reign in that which he had created (including his company, the industrial age, the loss of innocence, the war machine, and even his son). Worth the read. "
— Heath, 2/11/2014 -
" Dull and long - don't bother "
— Mike, 1/7/2014 -
" This book tells the story of Henry Ford's ambitious, well intentioned yet disastrous attempt to embed a slice of 1920's main street America into the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. Fordlandia was meant to be the place that would supply Henry Ford's rubber insufficiencies back in the States. On account of arrogance, mismanagement, naivety, and plain stupidity however, Fordlandia only every amounted to a money pit for a Ford and a slum of discontented and broken down native Brazilian workers. Grandin's historical portrayal throughout the book is exceptional. Ford was a complex man full of the grandest ambitions and dreams that he hoped would shape America and the later the whole world. He was also a man who through his actions contradicted nearly everything that he claimed to believe in. He left behind a legacy of both good and bad by my assessment. Fordlandia was only one of Ford's many great endeavor's. Grandin's treatment of Ford's handling of this Brazilian industrial utopia sheds a lot of light on not only the history of the town itself but on Ford and what made him tick. "
— Curtis, 1/5/2014 -
" While the topic was interesting, this book took forever to get through and I found it a bit boring, if I'm honest. "
— Kim, 12/15/2013 -
" Kind of a tough slog but wow Henry Ford had the ego. Who knew about this city? I never had... "
— Kevin, 12/11/2013 -
" For fans of Brave New World and 1984, this is an interesting book to get an idea of the social climate surrounding the writing of both books. "
— Kevin, 11/30/2013 -
" Awesome read. I had no idea what a role he played in the Amazon. "
— Isabelita, 4/12/2012 -
" Excellent book. Greg Grandin does a great job covering this little known story of Ford's attempt to transplate midwest America in the Amazon. "
— D., 12/26/2011 -
" Rated it a bit higher than the actual writing merits - only because the story is so fascinating. Henry Ford was such a complex character, transformational not just for creating the industry, but for his ideas to build a society & mold people in the ways he wanted Americans to be. "
— Marilyn, 11/20/2011 -
" Interesting story primarily documenting the story of Ford's push into the Amazon Rain Forest to create a city for cultivated rubber production. Overall, the lessons and information about Henry Ford was fascinating--both the positive and the more negative attributes. "
— Joann, 11/5/2011 -
" This is a fascinating book about Henry Ford, the early years of the auto industry, and his hare-brained scheme to build a city in the middle of the Amazon jungle. I had to turn it back in after reading up to page 100. "
— Frederick, 10/12/2011 -
" Ended up stopping this one before finishing....after it took more than the first third for them to GET to the Amazon, it fell short of expectations. "
— Greebs, 4/28/2011 -
" Ford's personality comes through pretty clearly in this book--apparently, you can create a nice car and still be a wackjob. Not sure the biography builds to the big, insightful finish that the author intended, but the portrait of the main character is solid and memorable. "
— Greg, 3/26/2011 -
" Interesting. But if you want to read a book about the Amazon, read The Lost City of Z, by David Grann. "
— David, 3/20/2011 -
" Superb book on a piece of history that I never knew about.<br/><br/>Beau Smith<br/>The Flying Fist Ranch "
— Beau, 1/6/2011 -
" Rated it a bit higher than the actual writing merits - only because the story is so fascinating. Henry Ford was such a complex character, transformational not just for creating the industry, but for his ideas to build a society & mold people in the ways he wanted Americans to be. "
— Marilyn, 1/2/2011 -
" An interesting story told with admirable thoroughness but, to be honest, I found it a bit of a slog towards the end. "
— Sam, 12/10/2010 -
" Pretty good, but I didn't finish it. "
— Deidre, 11/26/2010 -
" Extremely eye-opening and an amazing cultural commentary. My only complaint is that they didn't include more pictures! "
— Elaine, 11/12/2010
About Greg Grandin
Greg Grandin is the author of several books, including The Empire of Necessity, which won the Bancroft Prize, and Fordlandia, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. A professor of history at New York University and a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center, he has served on the United Nations Truth Commission and has written for the Nation, Los Angeles Times, New Statesman, and New York Times.
About Jonathan Davis
Jonathan Davis has been inducted into the Audible Narrator Hall of Fame. A three-time recipient and fourteen-time nominee of the Audie Award, he has earned accolades for his narration from the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, the American Library Association, Booklist, the Audio Publishers Association, AudioFile magazine, and USA Today. He has narrated a variety of bestsellers and award-winners for top publishing houses. He also narrated over forty titles of the Star Wars franchise for Lucasfilm Ltd./PRH Audio, including several iconic movie tie-ins, has participated with Star Wars Celebration, and has built a significant fan base. His work as a narrator includes films and programming for National Geographic Television, NOVA, PBS, VH1, and Francis Ford Coppola. He grew up in Puerto Rico and speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and Hebrew.