Futility Closet

In 1927, Henry Ford decided to build a plantation in the Amazon to supply rubber for his auto company. The result was Fordlandia, an incongruous Midwestern-style town in the tropical rainforest. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe the checkered history of Ford's curious project -- and what it revealed about his vision of society. We'll also consider some lifesaving seagulls and puzzle over a false alarm. Intro: In 1891, the Strand tried to notate the songs of English birds. The third line of Gray’s Elegy can be rearranged in 11 different ways while retaining its sense. Sources for our feature on Fordlandia: Greg Grandin, Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City, 2010. Elizabeth D. Esch, The Color Line and the Assembly Line: Managing Race in the Ford Empire, 2018. Stephen L. Nugent, The Rise and Fall of the Amazon Rubber Industry: An Historical Anthropology, 2017. Tom W. Bell, Your Next Government?: From the Nation State to Stateless Nations, 2018. R