In a book Publishers Weekly called "harrowing and richly detailed" in a starred review, award-winning author and filmmaker Gregg Mitman tells a sweeping story of capitalism, racial exploitation, and environmental devastation, as Firestone transformed Liberia into America's rubber empire. Scouring remote archives to unearth a story of promises unfulfilled for the vast numbers of Liberians who toiled on rubber plantations built on taken land, Mitman "peppers this history with a wealth of fascinating details and interesting characters" (Foreign Affairs), revealing a system of racial segregation and medical experimentation that reflected Jim Crow America-on African soil. Called "a brilliant, compelling read" by Princeton scholar Rob Nixon, Empire of Rubber provides a riveting narrative of ecology and disease, of commerce and science, and of racial politics and political maneuvering-the hidden story of a corporate empire whose tentacles reach into the present.