Completed in 1934, the Congo-Océan railroad stretches 300 miles across the Republic of Congo from Brazzaville to the Atlantic port of Pointe-Noir. The local people who built it were subjects of colonial France, an ostensibly democratic nation whose motto read "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," but the railroad stands as one of the deadliest construction projects in history. Telling an epic story, J.P. Daughton recounts the plight of the Congolese workers, and considers the human costs and contradictions of modern empire.