Greg Grandin, a history professor at New York University, recently reflected on Detroit's decay on the Huffington Post. Read the essay here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-g..._b_219607.html
As Grandin tours the ruins of Detroit we know so well, his imagination wanders to the ancient Roman empire. He comes to focus on Henry Ford's "Crystal Palace" in Highland Park, birthplace of the assembly line and the five-dollar-per-day wage. At one time, Grandin says, the Crystal Palace was the nucleus of Henry Ford's ambition to build a new American society.
Here's where I learned something. In the 1920s, Henry Ford established a "colony" in the Amazon basin. "Fordlandia" was a rubber plantation that Henry attempted to turn into a slice of Americana in the heart of the jungle. While Ford invested millions in the Americanization of the immigrants who filled his factories in Detroit, he poured millions into Americanizing the Brazilians who populated Fordlandia. He event hired Albert Kahn to design the public buildings in the colony. The experiment failed and nature eventually reclaimed Fordlandia.
Upon seeing Highland Park for the first time, Grandin is struck by how much it resembles the ruins of Fordlandia. He then connects these two failed enterprises with ancient empires. I'll let you read that for yourself.
I know some people on this forum will perceive Grandin's essay as a "rip" on Detroit, but I think it's worth a lot of thought as we consider where to go from here.
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