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Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City QUOTES

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City QUOTES

1 " 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." "Mr. Ford is neither a crank nor a freak," Lippmann insisted, but "merely the logical exponent of American prejudices about wealth and success. "

― Greg Grandin , Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City

2 " IT WOULD BE tempting to read the story of Fordlandia and Belterra as a parable of arrogance, "

― Greg Grandin , Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City

3 " 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. "

― Greg Grandin , Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City

4 " The prevailing note in the Amazon is one of monotony,” thought Kenneth Grubb, “the same green lines the river-bank, the same gloom fills the forest. . . . Each successive bend in the river is rounded in expectancy, only to reveal another identical stretch ahead. "

― Greg Grandin , Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City

5 " They were “galvanized iron bake ovens,” said Carl LaRue, commenting on Fordlandia’s foibles years later. “It is incredible that anyone should build a house like that in the tropics.” Another visitor described them as “midget hells, where one lies awake and sweats the first half of the night, and frequently between midnight and dawn undergoes a fierce siege of heat-provoking nightmares.” They seemed to be “designed by Detroit architects who probably couldn’t envision a land without snow.”19 Ford managers, said the priest, “never really "

― Greg Grandin , Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City

6 " And profit was generated by what was essentially an elaborate pyramid scheme: at the apex were foreign commercial and financial houses; in the middle stood Brazilian merchants, traders, and a few exporters; and the whole thing rested on the backs of indebted tappers, who, as one critic put it, received goods on credit charged at fifty but in reality worth ten, in exchange for latex that the local merchant assessed at ten but that was actually worth fifty. "

― Greg Grandin , Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City

7 " preserving the essence, in fact the breath—when it opened, his museum displayed Thomas Edison’s last exhalation, captured by his son in a test tube at Ford’s request—of a more durable American experience. "

― Greg Grandin , Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City

8 " after centuries of observation scientists are still not exactly sure why the Amazon—unlike other forests, where leaves turn brown during the dry season—grows green and lush when the rain stops or how this reversed pattern of photosynthesis contributes to the broader seasonal distribution of water throughout the region. "

― Greg Grandin , Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City

9 " Manaus is famous for its hulking Amazonas Theater, an opera house built of Italian marble and surrounded by roads made of rubber so the carriage clatter of late arrivals wouldn’t interrupt the voices of Europe’s best tenors and sopranos. "

― Greg Grandin , Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City

10 " Another visitor described them as “midget hells, where one lies awake and sweats the first half of the night, and frequently between midnight and dawn undergoes a fierce siege of heat-provoking nightmares.” They seemed to be “designed by Detroit architects who probably couldn’t envision a land without snow.”19 Ford managers, said the priest, “never really figured out what country they were in. "

― Greg Grandin , Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City

11 " Ford’s opinion that cows were the crudest, most inefficient machines in the world is not unjustified considering the amount of land and energy it takes to keep one alive. Between 2000 and 2005, cattle ranching accounted for 60 percent of deforestation, and today Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of cows, with its 180,000,000-head herd equaling the size of its population. "

― Greg Grandin , Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City