'In articulating new conceptual lines that make the work so rich and original, Volkswagen in the Amazon fits well into a new wave of recent studies (including my own) that demonstrate how the very notion of development, far from being a clear and constant signifier, is rather a polysemic conduit for different and competing meanings among different social actors situated in concrete historical junctures.' Rafael R. Ioris, The American Historical Review
1. Setting the stage: the Amazon as a horizon; 2. The making of a model ranch (1973–1976); 3. Development in the age of scarcity (1976–1983); 4. Out-of-date modernity: forced labor at Cristalino (1983–1986); 5. Cristalino's unhappy ending.