Fordlandia. A Review of Greg Grandin's <em>Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City</em> (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2009)

Authors

  • Marc Becker Truman State University

Keywords:

Fordlandia, Henry Ford, automobile, rubber

Abstract

Fordlandia represents a significant departure from Greg Grandin’s previous work on subaltern challenges to state structures in Guatemala. The story that Grandin relates is a fascinating and little known one. In 1927, car magnate Henry Ford purchased a huge tract of land buried deep in the Brazilian Amazon to grow rubber for export to the United States for use in the automobile industry. Ford never visited the settlement that carried his name, and his managers never were able to make the settlement flourish. Grandin focuses in particular on Ford’s failure to import western modernity into the Brazil Amazon.

Author Biography

Marc Becker, Truman State University

Marc Becker es Profesor Asociado de historia en Truman State University. Sus estudios se enfocan en las construcciones de clase, etnicidad, y género dentro de los movimientos populares en los Andes. Es autor de Indians and Leftists in the Making of Ecuador’s Modern Indigenous Movements (Duke University Press, 2008).

Published

2010-04-01

How to Cite

Becker, M. (2010). Fordlandia. A Review of Greg Grandin’s <em>Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City</em> (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2009). A Contracorriente: Una Revista De Estudios Latinoamericanos, 7(3), 530–535. Retrieved from https://acontracorriente.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/acontracorriente/article/view/562

Issue

Section

Reviews: The U.S. and Latin America