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Empire of Rubber
- Firestone’s Scramble for Land and Power in Liberia
- Narrated by: Amir Abdullah
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
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Publisher's summary
In the early 1920s, Americans owned eighty percent of the world's automobiles and consumed seventy-five percent of the world's rubber. But only one percent of the world's rubber grew under the US 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.
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Story
In Gotham, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace have produced a monumental work of history, one that ranges from the Indian tribes that settled in and around the island of Manna-hata, to the consolidation of the five boroughs into Greater New York in 1898. It is an epic narrative, a story as vast and as varied as the city it chronicles, and it underscores that the history of New York is the story of our nation. The events and people who crowd this audiobook guarantee that this is no mere local history. It is in fact a portrait of the heart and soul of America....
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THANK YOU!!!!!
- By Stephen F (SPFJR) on 09-29-18
By: Edwin G. Burrows, and others
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Slavery's Capitalism
- A New History of American Economic Development
- By: Sven Beckert - editor, Seth Rockman - editor
- Narrated by: William Hughes, Kevin Kenerly, Bahni Turpin, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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During the 19th century, the United States entered the ranks of the world's most advanced and dynamic economies. At the same time, the nation sustained an expansive and brutal system of human bondage. This was no mere coincidence. Slavery's Capitalism argues for slavery's centrality to the emergence of American capitalism in the decades between the Revolution and the Civil War.
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The volume is so low I can't hear it.
- By Anonymous User on 01-30-18
By: Sven Beckert - editor, and others
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American Heritage History of the United States
- By: Douglas Brinkley
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 23 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Douglas Brinkley takes us on the incredible journey of the United States - a nation formed from a vast countryside on whose fringes 13 small British colonies fought for their freedom, then established a democratic nation that spanned the continent and went on to become a world power. This book will be treasured by anyone interested in the story of America.
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Highly recommended!
- By M. Hu on 08-04-17
By: Douglas Brinkley
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The Making of Asian America
- A History
- By: Erika Lee
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 15 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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In the past 50 years, Asian Americans have helped change the face of America and are now the fastest growing group in the United States. The Making of Asian America tells the little-known history of Asian Americans and their role in American life, from the arrival of the first Asians in the Americas to the present-day.
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Great content, terrible narration
- By Mrs. Rdz on 10-24-15
By: Erika Lee
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A Patriot’s History of the United States, Updated Edition
- From Columbus's Great Discovery to America's Age of Entitlement
- By: Larry Schweikart, Michael Allen
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 55 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Over the past decade, A Patriot's History of the United States has become the definitive conservative history of our country, correcting the biases of historians and other intellectuals who downplay the greatness of America's patriots. Professors Schweikart and Allen have now revised, updated, and expanded their book, which covers America's long history with an appreciation for the values that made this nation uniquely successful.
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A Fox News Version of American History
- By Stephen on 05-16-21
By: Larry Schweikart, and others
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The American Experiment
- By: James MacGregor Burns
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 88 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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James MacGregor Burns’s stunning trilogy of American history, spanning the birth of the Constitution to the final days of the Cold War. In these three volumes, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner James MacGregor Burns chronicles with depth and narrative panache the most significant cultural, economic, and political events of American history.
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American History ABCs
- By Michael on 06-16-15
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The Looting Machine
- Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa's Wealth
- By: Tom Burgis
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The trade in oil, gas, gems, metals, and rare earth minerals wreaks havoc in Africa. During the years when Brazil, India, China, and the other "emerging markets" have transformed their economies, Africa's resource states remained tethered to the bottom of the industrial supply chain. While Africa accounts for about 30 percent of the world's reserves of hydrocarbons and minerals and 14 percent of the world's population, its share of global manufacturing stood in 2011 exactly where it stood in 2000: at 1 percent.
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Frightening, Fascinating, Fatiguing
- By Scott on 07-29-18
By: Tom Burgis
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American Colonies: The Settling of North America
- Penguin History of the United States, Book 1
- By: Alan Taylor
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 21 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In the first volume in the Penguin History of the United States series, edited by Eric Foner, Alan Taylor challenges the traditional story of colonial history by examining the many cultures that helped make America, from the native inhabitants from millennia past through the decades of Western colonization and conquest and across the entire continent, all the way to the Pacific coast.
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Excellent ..
- By aintbuyinit on 09-03-18
By: Alan Taylor
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How the Post Office Created America
- A History
- By: Winifred Gallagher
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The founders established the Post Office before they had even signed the Declaration of Independence, and for a very long time it was the US government's largest and most important endeavor - indeed, it was the government for most citizens. This was no conventional mail network but the central nervous system of the new body politic, designed to bind 13 quarrelsome colonies into the United States by delivering news about public affairs to every citizen - a radical idea that appalled Europe's great powers.
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Super interesting. I'm so disappointed.
- By william kearns on 07-21-16
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From Silk to Silicon
- The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives
- By: Jeffrey E. Garten
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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From Silk to Silicon tells the story of who these men and women were, what they did, how they did it, and how their achievements continue to shape our world today.
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Fantastic Journey
- By Michael on 06-06-16
What listeners say about Empire of Rubber
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 10-07-24
outstanding
I felt that this book took me on an Odyssey, a deeper understanding and exposure to Liberia's problems.
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- Siah Stevens
- 12-03-22
History of Liberia
An essential part of Liberia’s History that has been concealed by the paternalistic, power greedy, and capitalistic Western Culture/World.
A very important piece of Black History. A must read/listen to book.
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- S. Schlegel
- 12-05-23
Directionless book, Horribly read. Everyone’s a racist except the author.
Just a horrible book, read like a child’s puppet-show. I actually paid money to listen to this book. Shame on the editor for not giving the author guidance. Shame on the publisher for not putting limits on the insistence that everyone is racist. The book lacks actual direction. And that’s the problem. After listening to this audiobook it is clear that the author went into this hoping to stir up some racist controversy but he just went on some tangent of how horrible each person he spoke about was. Firestone was racist. The black Africans were racist against poor Africans. Poor Africans hated the US blacks from Harvard. The white workers were racist. Some weren’t racist. The white lady who was in awe of Liberian art moved there and promoted the culture (!), and then the author throws her under the bus by insisting that she profited by making pottery with African designs: once again, a racist imperialist act. The author was in shock that African workers earned less than American workers(?),….. uh? Ok brother. Just a bad book. In one chapter he accuses the Liberians of taking away tribal lands illegally to rent to Firestone (as per the historical account). Then several chapters later he accuses Firestone of “stealing indigenous lands”? Did you not read your own book? A racist insinuation around every corner. Directionless historical account of racist blather during a period of time. Greedy whites and greedy elitist Africans destroying tribal lands because everyone is racist. Everyone takes a turn looking like a racist in this book. Not literature:(
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