Henry Ford didn’t just want to be a maker of cars — he wanted to be a maker of men. He thought he could perfect society by building model factories and pristine villages to go with them. And he was pretty successful at it in Michigan. But in the jungles of Brazil, he would ultimately be defeated.
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Read here for the whole NPR piece. Fascinating episode in the never ending Glory Story. Had any of you guys ever heard of this? (Hat tip to Kendall at T19.)
PS. Be sure to look at all the amazing photos too.
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One response to “Fordlandia: The Failure Of Ford’s Jungle Utopia”
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I read a book review on this story the other day. One anecdote that I liked from the review was that they installed prohibition regulations in the "camp" in Brazil (which the Brazilians obviously hated), but American managers wouldn't let Catholic priests come and preach against drinking (or run their schools).
It was not religious evangelism, but capitalistism evangelism. And thinking that capitalism entailed everything American, the outreach included prohibiton of alcohol, clealiness requirements, good food and medicine so that people could work longer, and higher wages etc etc. Anyway, the Brazilians didn't buy it. And because it was evangelism rather than true business, it sounds like Ford let it go on too long.
All in all a total ridiculous story.