Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is an American tire manufacturer based in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1900 by Harvey S. Firestone in Akron, Ohio, originally producing solid rubber side-wire tires for fire apparatus. The company later expanded to manufacture pneumatic tires for wagons, carriages, and other wheeled vehicles of the time.

Recognizing the emerging market for automobile tires, Firestone was a pioneer in the mass production of tires. Harvey Firestone's close relationship with Henry Ford helped establish Firestone as the original equipment supplier for Ford Motor Company vehicles, while also maintaining a strong presence in the replacement tire market. In 1988, Firestone was acquired by the Japanese tire manufacturer Bridgestone, and the brand now operates as part of Bridgestone Americas, Inc.

Firestone was originally based in Akron, Ohio, also the hometown of its archrival, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, and two other midsized competitors, General Tire and Rubber Company and B.F. Goodrich Company. Founded on August 3, 1900, the company initiated operations with 12 employees. Together, Firestone and Goodyear were the largest suppliers of automotive tires in North America for over 75 years. In 1906, Henry Ford chose Firestone to supply tires for Ford car models.

In 1918, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Canada was incorporated in Hamilton, Ontario, and the first Canadian-made tire rolled off the line on September 15, 1922. During the 1920s, Firestone produced the Oldfield tire, named for racing driver Barney Oldfield.

In 1926, the company opened one of the world's largest rubber plantations, extending over one million acres (1,560 sq mi; 4,050 km²), in Liberia, West Africa. That year the company also opened its first Firestone Tire and Service Center (later renamed Firestone Complete Auto Care). Firestone Complete Auto Care is the division of Firestone that offers automotive maintenance and repair, including tires.^{[citation needed]}

In 1927, Henry Ford and Harvey S. Firestone visited Southern California to select locations for new factories. His friends said Ford wanted to be near the ocean and picked Long Beach and suggested Firestone locate in South Gate, California, a small community southeast of downtown Los Angeles that at the time was mostly farmland. Firestone identified 40 acres (16 ha) of beanfields for the site of his new manufacturing plant. Architects Curlett and Beelman designed a spectacular four-story Italianate-style complex, with its own power plant and decorated with polychrome murals by Gladding, McBean depicting the tire and rubber-making process. A year after the plant opened in 1928, it expanded to double the initial size, and by 1954 grew to nearly one million square feet (23 acres; 9.3 ha). The town grew around Firestone; its main boulevard was named after Harvey, and Los Angeles became the number one tire market in the country. By the mid-1970s, Ford and General Motors had massive layoffs as Firestone and other manufacturers opened new plants in non-union locales like Wilson, North Carolina. After considerable downsizing, the South Gate plant was closed in 1980, and 1,300 workers were laid off. East Los Angeles College has proposed a new satellite campus at the site.

In 1928, the company built a factory in Brentford, England, a longtime Art Deco landmark on a major route into the city; this closed in 1979.^{[citation needed]} After its purchase by Trafalgar House, the building was demolished during the August 1980 bank holiday weekend, reportedly in anticipation of its becoming listed.

In 1936, the company opened a plant in Memphis, Tennessee. With a work force exceeding 3,000 employees, the Memphis plant was the largest tire manufacturer in the company's worldwide operation. On July 1, 1963, the company celebrated the production of 100 million tires in Memphis. The Memphis plant closed in 1982, and most of the plant buildings were demolished. The EPA considers the tract a brownfield site, and the possible presence of hazardous substances or contaminants have deterred its redevelopment.