Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil

Colby, Gerard

ISBN 10: 1543690335 ISBN 13: 9781543690330

Publisher: Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio, 2018

Synopsis

The United States' secret history of financial, political, and cultural exploitation of Latin America in the mid-20th century is revealed in this "blistering exposé", with a new introduction by the authors (Publishers Weekly).

What happened when a wealthy industrialist and a visionary evangelist unleashed forces that joined to subjugate an entire continent? Historians Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett tell the story of the 40-year campaign led by Standard Oil scion Nelson Rockefeller and Wycliffe Bible Translators founder William Cameron Townsend to establish a US imperial beachhead in Central and South America. Beginning in the 1940s, future Vice President Rockefeller worked with the CIA and allies in the banking industry to prop up repressive governments, devastate the Amazon rain forest, and destabilize local economies - all in the name of anti-Communism. Meanwhile, Townsend and his army of missionaries sought to undermine the belief systems of the region's indigenous peoples and convert them to Christianity. Their combined efforts would have tragic and long-lasting repercussions, argue the authors of this "well-documented" (Los Angeles Times) book - the product of 18 years of research - which legendary progressive historian Howard Zinn called "an extraordinary piece of investigative history. Its message is powerful, its data overwhelming and impressive."

About this title

Review:

This extraordinary saga moves from the Oval Office to the Amazon rain forests to show how Cold War intrigue linked a powerful American family, the U.S. government, and a missionary organization in a forty-year campaign to conquer the Amazon. At the heart of this story are two intensely ambitious men: Nelson Rockefeller, scion of the liberal and immensely wealthy Standard Oil family, and William Cameron Townsend, founder of the ultraconservative Wycliffe Bible Translators. Although leaders of opposing camps, they found common cause in the struggle against fascism and then communism, with the result that hundreds of thousands of Amazonian tribespeople died or were displaced. The systematic campaign of colonization fathered by Rockefeller and Townsend was a chilling foreshadowing of American intervention in the Third World to secure valuable natural resources in the name of democracy.

About the Author:

Kevin Stillwell is an actor that has voiced a number of audiobooks, including" Careless Love", " Last Train to Memphis", " The First Assassin", " The Millionaire Affair", and others. His film and television credits include "Looper" and "Drop Dead Diva".

About this edition

• Publisher: Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1543690335
• ISBN 13: 9781543690330
• Binding: MP3 CD