Empire of rubber : Firestone's scramble for land and power in Liberia / Gregg Mitman.
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : The New Press, 2021Copyright date: ©2021Description: xiii, 312 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cmContent type:- text
- still image
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781620973776
- 1620973774
- Firestone, Harvey Samuel, 1868-1938
- Firestone Tire and Rubber Company -- History
- Rubber industry and trade -- Liberia -- History -- 20th century
- Rubber industry and trade -- United States -- History -- 20th century
- Liberia -- Foreign economic relations -- United States
- United States -- Foreign economic relations -- Liberia
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book | Dr. James Carlson Library | NonFiction | 338.7678 M684 | Available | 33111010607584 | ||||
Adult Book | Main Library | NonFiction | 338.7678 M684 | Available | 33111010761605 | ||||
Adult Book | Northport Library | NonFiction | 338.7678 M684 | Available | 33111009867322 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
An ambitious and shocking exposé of America's hidden empire in Liberia, run by the storied Firestone corporation, and its long shadow
In the early 1920s, Americans owned 80 percent of the world's automobiles and consumed 75 percent of the world's rubber. But only one percent of the world's rubber grew under the U.S. flag, creating a bottleneck that hampered the nation's explosive economic expansion. To solve its conundrum, the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company turned to a tiny West African nation, Liberia, founded in 1847 as a free Black republic.
Empire of Rubber tells a sweeping story of capitalism, racial exploitation, and environmental devastation, as Firestone transformed Liberia into America's rubber empire.
Historian and filmmaker Gregg Mitman scoured remote archives to unearth a history of promises unfulfilled for the vast numbers of Liberians who toiled on rubber plantations built on taken land. Mitman reveals a history of racial segregation and medical experimentation that reflected Jim Crow America--on African soil. As Firestone reaped fortunes, wealth and power concentrated in the hands of a few elites, fostering widespread inequalities that fed unrest, rebellions and, eventually, civil war.
A riveting narrative of ecology and disease, of commerce and science, and of racial politics and political maneuvering, Empire of Rubber uncovers the hidden story of a corporate empire whose tentacles reach into the present.
Includes bibliographical references (pages [253]-300) and index.
Maps on endpapers.
"America Should Produce Its Own Rubber" -- Reverse Passage -- Missionaries of Capital -- An American Protectorate? -- Contested Development -- Plantation Lives -- Cold War Concessions.
"An ambitious and shocking exposé of America's hidden empire in Liberia, run by the storied Firestone corporation, and its long shadow"-- Provided by publisher.