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

PUBLICATION DATE: 7 October 2010
£ 9.99 ● Paperback ● ISBN 978-1848311541

‘The story of Ford’s not-so-excellent adventure in the jungle is a writer’s dream and Greg Grandin takes full advantage of its dramatic potential…Grandin’s assessment of Ford is by turns critical and sympathetic, but always subtle.’ London Review of Books

‘A case history combining some of the tragic elements of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness alongside the naïve innocence of Conan Doyle’s The Lost World.’ Daily Telegraph

‘[A] well written account of a forgotten chapter of industrial history…Grandin effectively underscores how Fordlandia is also the story of Ford’s own contradictions – and by extension, those of the modern world…’ Times Literary Supplement

In 1927 Henry Ford, the richest man in the world, bought a tract of land the size of Northern Ireland in the Brazilian Amazon. His intention was to grow rubber for his cars, but the project rapidly evolved into a more ambitious bid to export America itself. But it was a Utopia short-lived. Fordlandia, as the settlement was called, quickly became the site of an epic clash. On one side was the car magnate – lean, austere, the man who reduced industrial production to its simplest motions; on the other, the Amazon – lush, extravagant, the most complex ecological system on the planet.

FORDLANDIA excavates the fascinating history of the battle between industrialized capitalism and the raw power of nature, casting new light on Henry Ford’s legacy and a forgotten chapter in U.S. and Latin American history.

GREG GRANDIN is a Professor of History at New York University. The author of Empire’s Workshop (of which Hugo Chavez said, ‘What is happening today in Latin America? To answer this question read Empire’s Workshop’.), The Last Colonial Massacre, and the award-winning The Blood of Guatemala.

CONTACT: Najma Finlay, Publicity Director Icon Books najma.finlay@iconbooks.co.uk D/L 020 7700 9962