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A review by jpalfreyman
Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin
3.0
This sums up working with Henry Ford by Charles Lindbergh.
"Their policy is to act first and plan afterward, usually overlooking completely essential details. Result: a tremendous increase of cost and effort unnecessarily.”
Ford in a lot of ways transformed manufacturing and the work force, but he wasn't great at conforming to something he didn't understand. From the very start of his grand experiment in the Amazon was a disaster. He sent people who had never seen a jungle to plant and build cities, like they had in Michigan. The Amazon is no Michigan. Planting season is essential. Knowing the fungus and parasites is essential. Knowing that you can only deliver goods in the wet season is essential (the river could not handle cargo ships in dry season because there wasn't enough water). People who live off land do not need steady work. They don't go hungry because they eat what is naturally grown. I felt horrible for the families sent by the Fords to make this all work. The frustration, push back and disasters was not worth it for Ford to save money on tires. in the end, they dumped about $25 million in 1920 dollars and begged the government to take it back after Henry Ford's death for $245000. Ford is looney. At best anti-Semitic, racist and a poor father. In addition, this all came about because of the action of Winston Churchill. Of course it did, all my reading ends at Churchill. Intentional or not.
"Their policy is to act first and plan afterward, usually overlooking completely essential details. Result: a tremendous increase of cost and effort unnecessarily.”
Ford in a lot of ways transformed manufacturing and the work force, but he wasn't great at conforming to something he didn't understand. From the very start of his grand experiment in the Amazon was a disaster. He sent people who had never seen a jungle to plant and build cities, like they had in Michigan. The Amazon is no Michigan. Planting season is essential. Knowing the fungus and parasites is essential. Knowing that you can only deliver goods in the wet season is essential (the river could not handle cargo ships in dry season because there wasn't enough water). People who live off land do not need steady work. They don't go hungry because they eat what is naturally grown. I felt horrible for the families sent by the Fords to make this all work. The frustration, push back and disasters was not worth it for Ford to save money on tires. in the end, they dumped about $25 million in 1920 dollars and begged the government to take it back after Henry Ford's death for $245000. Ford is looney. At best anti-Semitic, racist and a poor father. In addition, this all came about because of the action of Winston Churchill. Of course it did, all my reading ends at Churchill. Intentional or not.