Summary:
Chapter 14:
This chapter goes into rather detail about John Rogge, who became the first
person in command at Fordlandia after Perini went back to the states. Rogge was
a real “mountain man” and was very happy to go to the amazon so that he could experience
the real nature. Rogge takes off into the jungle, leaving Fordlandia, for two
men who were sent to find good seeds, but have been using Ford money to buy
alcohol and sex. Rogge thinks he can take on the jungle no problem, but all of
the bugs eventually become a problem for him and he seeks the help of a church
and its nuns that he finds along the way. After they nurse him back to health
he catches up to the men and find that they have been paying a local tribe,
with goods, not currency as Ford always wanted, to cut and collect seeds. Rogge
fired these two men when he found them, and attempted to pay the natives with
currency, but they all wanted to be paid in goods, so he continued to do this.
Chapter 15:
Fordlandia had a rough start, but it started to look up for the plantation
until a new cook came onto the planation. This new cook wanted to have
cafeteria style instead of all of the workers getting waited on, and this was
something that the workers didn’t like. One worker was so detested that he went
off on the cook, and trouble ensued, until a full out riot occurred. The
Americans on the planation were forced to retreat either into the woods or onto
boats that they floated down stream. Rogge sent for reinforcements from the
Brazilian government so that they wouldn’t burn the entire planation down, and
they actually sent them. When the rioting was all over, plantation leaders
decided to fire nearly all of the workers and bring in new ones.
Chapter 16:
The person who always seemed on top of the world eventually would come to his
own demise, and that would be Henry Ford himself. He was well known for his
anti-Semitism, and many during WWII thought that he was supporting Hitler. He
was suing for someone over a defamation claim, but the trial revealed he was
nearly illiterate. Ford was now portraying himself as someone the world would
have never considered him as. Ford soon became the largest collector in the
world, he tried to collect anything and everything that related to the
modernizing of America. Whether it was toasters or huge machinery, he had it
shipped to the Rouge. He then assembled everything into a museum, but the
museum was a whole idealistic city called Greenfield. Historians and critics
didn’t like the museum because it had no order to it at all. Once Henry’s good
friend Thomas Edison died, many said that henry officially went crazy.
Themes:
WOR:
Specifically for Henry Ford did this become a problem. No one wanted to be
associated with Hitler during WWII and this was something that really hurt
Henry’s reputation. Everyone knew Henry didn’t like Jews, and some even began
to believe he was helping support Hitler’s goals of extermination them.
POL:
The power in Fordlandia was something that had to constantly be maintained. For
most of the time the planation was in existence, a militia had been present to
remain control. Not long before the riots these troops were removed, and this
is part in why the riot did eventually occur. Without strict control, these
workers tried to overthrow or destroy any power.
Course Outline:
Radical, union, and populist movements pushed Roosevelt toward more extensive
reforms, even as conservatives in Congress and the Supreme Court sought to
limit the New Deal’s scope. (Key Concept 7.1 III. B.)
Ford would have been one of the conservatives in Congress. He personally wasn’t
that affected by the depression because he had little money in the stock market
because he didn’t trust the banks. Ford was a stark opponent of Theodore
Roosevelt and this continued onto Franklin Roosevelt. Ford thought that the
high control and excessive government plans would hurt the economy more. He
thought that the country was actually thriving and was in a good place during the
depression.
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