<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:podcast="https://podcastindex.org/namespace/1.0" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" version="2.0"><channel><title>Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/footnote-to-history-eight-years-of-trouble-in-samoa--7164495</link><description><![CDATA[Embark on a journey through the complexities of imperialism and cultural collision, as suggested by the evocative title. This podcast delves into the multifaceted narratives surrounding Samoa's turbulent history, exploring themes of power, conflict, and identity in a world shaped by foreign influence. Each episode features a new complete audiobook that invites listeners to engage with a range of perspectives on colonial encounters and the human experiences that define them. This is not a single story but a collection of unique explorations that reveal the intricate interplay between ambition, cultural pride, and the struggle for autonomy. With every episode, you are encouraged to discover a new book that broadens your understanding of history and the lasting impacts of imperialism. Join us as we uncover the stories that illuminate the past and resonate with the present.]]></description><atom:link href="https://www.spreaker.com/show/7164495/episodes/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><language>en</language><category>Books</category><copyright>Copyright Social Science Genre</copyright><image><url>https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg</url><title>Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/footnote-to-history-eight-years-of-trouble-in-samoa--7164495</link></image><lastBuildDate>Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:10:08 +0000</lastBuildDate><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:owner><itunes:name>Social Science Genre</itunes:name><itunes:email>spreaker86@podcastlibrary.org</itunes:email></itunes:owner><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:subtitle>Embark on a journey through the complexities of imperialism and cultural collision, as suggested by the evocative title. This podcast delves into the multifaceted narratives surrounding Samoa's turbulent history, exploring themes of power, conflict,...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[Embark on a journey through the complexities of imperialism and cultural collision, as suggested by the evocative title. This podcast delves into the multifaceted narratives surrounding Samoa's turbulent history, exploring themes of power, conflict, and identity in a world shaped by foreign influence. Each episode features a new complete audiobook that invites listeners to engage with a range of perspectives on colonial encounters and the human experiences that define them. This is not a single story but a collection of unique explorations that reveal the intricate interplay between ambition, cultural pride, and the struggle for autonomy. With every episode, you are encouraged to discover a new book that broadens your understanding of history and the lasting impacts of imperialism. Join us as we uncover the stories that illuminate the past and resonate with the present.]]></itunes:summary><itunes:category text="Arts"><itunes:category text="Books"/></itunes:category><itunes:category text="Science"/><itunes:category text="Science"><itunes:category text="Nature"/></itunes:category><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><podcast:guid>cd12c30e-393e-5f44-9167-d678c790e78c</podcast:guid><itunes:type>episodic</itunes:type><item><title>Anarchism and Other Essays (Version 2)-Emma Goldman</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/anarchism-and-other-essays-version-2-emma-goldman--74941044</link><description><![CDATA["Anarchism and Other Essays" by Emma Goldman presents a collection of thought-provoking essays that delve into the philosophy of anarchism and its implications for society. Goldman passionately argues for individual freedom, social justice, and the necessity of challenging oppressive systems, making her insights remarkably relevant in today's discussions about authority and personal autonomy. Her exploration of themes such as feminism, labor rights, and the critique of state power continues to resonate, inspiring new generations to question societal norms and advocate for change. This enduring work serves as a powerful reminder of the ongoing struggle for liberation and the importance of dissent in shaping a just world.]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74941044</guid><pubDate>Mon, 07 Sep 2026 09:02:06 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74941044/anarchism_and_other_essays_version_2_emma_goldman.mp3" length="216919560" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>"Anarchism and Other Essays" by Emma Goldman presents a collection of thought-provoking essays that delve into the philosophy of anarchism and its implications for society. Goldman passionately argues for individual freedom, social justice, and the...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA["Anarchism and Other Essays" by Emma Goldman presents a collection of thought-provoking essays that delve into the philosophy of anarchism and its implications for society. Goldman passionately argues for individual freedom, social justice, and the necessity of challenging oppressive systems, making her insights remarkably relevant in today's discussions about authority and personal autonomy. Her exploration of themes such as feminism, labor rights, and the critique of state power continues to resonate, inspiring new generations to question societal norms and advocate for change. This enduring work serves as a powerful reminder of the ongoing struggle for liberation and the importance of dissent in shaping a just world.]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>27088</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>History of the United States, Vol. IV The West and Jacksonian Democracy-Charles Austin Beard, Mary Ritter Beard</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/history-of-the-united-states-vol-iv-the-west-and-jacksonian-democracy-charles-austin-beard-mary-ritter-beard--74839011</link><description><![CDATA["History of the United States, Vol. IV The West and Jacksonian Democracy" by Charles Austin Beard and Mary Ritter Beard delves into the transformative era of the American West and the rise of Jacksonian democracy, exploring how these elements shaped the nation’s identity and political landscape. This volume highlights the conflicts, aspirations, and democratic ideals that emerged during a pivotal time in U.S. history, capturing the essence of a nation grappling with expansion and change. The themes of democracy, individual rights, and the impact of westward expansion resonate today as society continues to navigate issues of governance and social justice.]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74839011</guid><pubDate>Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:01:43 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74839011/history_of_the_united_states_vol_iv_the_west_and_jacksonian_democracy_charles_austin_beard_mary_ritter_beard.mp3" length="93915685" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>"History of the United States, Vol. IV The West and Jacksonian Democracy" by Charles Austin Beard and Mary Ritter Beard delves into the transformative era of the American West and the rise of Jacksonian democracy, exploring how these elements shaped...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA["History of the United States, Vol. IV The West and Jacksonian Democracy" by Charles Austin Beard and Mary Ritter Beard delves into the transformative era of the American West and the rise of Jacksonian democracy, exploring how these elements shaped the nation’s identity and political landscape. This volume highlights the conflicts, aspirations, and democratic ideals that emerged during a pivotal time in U.S. history, capturing the essence of a nation grappling with expansion and change. The themes of democracy, individual rights, and the impact of westward expansion resonate today as society continues to navigate issues of governance and social justice.]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>11728</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Five Stages of Greek Religion-Gilbert Murray</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/five-stages-of-greek-religion-gilbert-murray--74829739</link><description><![CDATA["Five Stages of Greek Religion" by Gilbert Murray delves into the evolution of religious beliefs in ancient Greece, exploring how these stages reflect the complexities of human faith and spirituality. This insightful examination reveals the transition from primitive worship to more sophisticated philosophical understandings, offering a rich tapestry of cultural and historical context. Hearing this work today allows listeners to appreciate the enduring nature of religious thought and its influence on contemporary beliefs and practices. Murray's analysis provides a timeless perspective on how societies grapple with the divine, making it a compelling listen for those interested in the intersection of history, religion, and human experience.]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74829739</guid><pubDate>Sat, 05 Sep 2026 09:01:47 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74829739/five_stages_of_greek_religion_gilbert_murray.mp3" length="192472977" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>"Five Stages of Greek Religion" by Gilbert Murray delves into the evolution of religious beliefs in ancient Greece, exploring how these stages reflect the complexities of human faith and spirituality. This insightful examination reveals the transition...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA["Five Stages of Greek Religion" by Gilbert Murray delves into the evolution of religious beliefs in ancient Greece, exploring how these stages reflect the complexities of human faith and spirituality. This insightful examination reveals the transition from primitive worship to more sophisticated philosophical understandings, offering a rich tapestry of cultural and historical context. Hearing this work today allows listeners to appreciate the enduring nature of religious thought and its influence on contemporary beliefs and practices. Murray's analysis provides a timeless perspective on how societies grapple with the divine, making it a compelling listen for those interested in the intersection of history, religion, and human experience.]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>24035</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Slave Narratives a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves, Volume XII, Ohio Narratives-Various</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/slave-narratives-a-folk-history-of-slavery-in-the-united-states-from-interviews-with-former-slaves-volume-xii-ohio-narratives-various--74622349</link><description><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74622349</guid><pubDate>Thu, 27 Aug 2026 09:02:39 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74622349/slave_narratives_a_folk_history_of_slavery_in_the_united_states_from_interviews_with_former_slaves_volume_xii_ohio_narratives_various.mp3" length="138993910" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>17357</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Notes On Democracy-H. L. Mencken</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/notes-on-democracy-h-l-mencken--74590576</link><description><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74590576</guid><pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2026 09:02:47 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74590576/notes_on_democracy_h_l_mencken.mp3" length="144230321" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>18011</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>On an Irish Jaunting-Car through Donegal and Connemara-Samuel Gamble Bayne</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/on-an-irish-jaunting-car-through-donegal-and-connemara-samuel-gamble-bayne--74559737</link><description><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74559737</guid><pubDate>Tue, 25 Aug 2026 09:02:44 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74559737/on_an_irish_jaunting_car_through_donegal_and_connemara_samuel_gamble_bayne.mp3" length="92448071" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>11545</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Medicine-Men Of The Apache-John Gregory Bourke</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/medicine-men-of-the-apache-john-gregory-bourke--74528012</link><description><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74528012</guid><pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2026 09:08:40 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74528012/medicine_men_of_the_apache_john_gregory_bourke.mp3" length="203807344" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>25450</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Romance of Polar Exploration-G. Firth Scott</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/romance-of-polar-exploration-g-firth-scott--74497691</link><description><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74497691</guid><pubDate>Sun, 23 Aug 2026 09:08:38 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74497691/12212_romance_of_polar_exploration_g_firth_scott.mp3" length="248508711" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>31032</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Woman and the New Race-Margaret Sanger</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/woman-and-the-new-race-margaret-sanger--74458544</link><description><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74458544</guid><pubDate>Sat, 22 Aug 2026 09:07:50 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74458544/woman_and_the_new_race_margaret_sanger.mp3" length="118243475" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>14766</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Running Water-A. E. W. Mason</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/running-water-a-e-w-mason--74426824</link><description><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74426824</guid><pubDate>Fri, 21 Aug 2026 09:08:33 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74426824/5569_running_water_a_e_w_mason.mp3" length="248837065" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>31073</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Culture and Anarchy-Matthew Arnold</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/culture-and-anarchy-matthew-arnold--74383045</link><description><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74383045</guid><pubDate>Thu, 20 Aug 2026 11:23:15 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74383045/culture_and_anarchy_matthew_arnold.mp3" length="173751022" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>21697</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Other People's Money-Louis D. Brandeis</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/other-people-s-money-louis-d-brandeis--74343300</link><description><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74343300</guid><pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 22:11:17 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74343300/other_people_s_money_louis_d_brandeis.mp3" length="151974287" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>18978</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Revolutions of Civilization-William Matthew Flinders Petrie</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/revolutions-of-civilization-william-matthew-flinders-petrie--74201604</link><description><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74201604</guid><pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2026 09:08:45 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74201604/revolutions_of_civilization_william_matthew_flinders_petrie.mp3" length="46603570" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>5820</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Slave Narratives a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves, Volume V, Indiana Narratives-Various</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/slave-narratives-a-folk-history-of-slavery-in-the-united-states-from-interviews-with-former-slaves-volume-v-indiana-narratives-various--74155759</link><description><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74155759</guid><pubDate>Mon, 17 Aug 2026 09:09:12 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74155759/slave_narratives_a_folk_history_of_slavery_in_the_united_states_from_interviews_with_former_slaves_volume_v_indiana_narratives_various.mp3" length="200310466" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>25014</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Road-Hilaire Belloc</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/road-hilaire-belloc--74113889</link><description><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74113889</guid><pubDate>Sun, 16 Aug 2026 09:37:25 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74113889/road_hilaire_belloc.mp3" length="126322148" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>15774</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Woman and War-Olive Schreiner</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/woman-and-war-olive-schreiner--73420955</link><description><![CDATA["Woman and War-Olive Schreiner" delves into the complex interplay between gender and conflict, exploring how war impacts women's lives and roles in society. This thought-provoking work remains relevant today as it challenges traditional narratives of war and emphasizes the often-overlooked contributions and sacrifices of women. Schreiner's insights invite listeners to reflect on the ongoing struggles for gender equality and the need for inclusive historical perspectives. By engaging with this audiobook, audiences can gain a deeper understanding of the enduring themes of resilience and the quest for justice in the face of adversity.]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/73420955</guid><pubDate>Tue, 04 Aug 2026 09:01:20 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73420955/woman_and_war_olive_schreiner.mp3" length="24927473" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>"Woman and War-Olive Schreiner" delves into the complex interplay between gender and conflict, exploring how war impacts women's lives and roles in society. This thought-provoking work remains relevant today as it challenges traditional narratives of...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA["Woman and War-Olive Schreiner" delves into the complex interplay between gender and conflict, exploring how war impacts women's lives and roles in society. This thought-provoking work remains relevant today as it challenges traditional narratives of war and emphasizes the often-overlooked contributions and sacrifices of women. Schreiner's insights invite listeners to reflect on the ongoing struggles for gender equality and the need for inclusive historical perspectives. By engaging with this audiobook, audiences can gain a deeper understanding of the enduring themes of resilience and the quest for justice in the face of adversity.]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>3113</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Footnote to History Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa - Robert Louis Stevenson</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/footnote-to-history-eight-years-of-trouble-in-samoa-robert-louis-stevenson--72894773</link><description><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/72894773</guid><pubDate>Thu, 09 Jul 2026 17:33:56 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72894773/footnote_to_history_eight_years_of_trouble_in_samoa_robert_louis_stevenson.mp3" length="204143422" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Robert Louis Stevenson</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[CONTENT WARNING: THIS WORK INCORPORATES QUOTATIONS CONTAINING RACIST SLURS. IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A BOWDLERIZED COPY, SEE BETWEEN ABOUT 07.47 AND 07.50, AND AGAIN BETWEEN 11.00 AND 11.08, OF SECTION 9 / CHAPTER 8. There is no single experience with imperialism. The world over, every country subjected to foreign influence or subjugated to foreign control has their own story shaped by economics, civics, development, environment, culture, geography, diplomacy and people. There is no single experience with imperialism, and yet I suspect most people would not judge Samoa’s experience to be particularly exceptional either. Robert Louis Stephenson’s A Footnote to History is a particularly engaging account for being a pedestrian’s-eye view of imperialism at work. In Stephenson’s own words, his story is largely “. . . one of rapacity, intrigue and the triumphs of temper”. There is that. Cultures clash. Ordinary people are caught in the gears—while others are simply spectators, swept along. There are schemers too. Those seeking to shape the world to their own designs. Those who wrought this Samoan Crisis. Many of them are caught in the gears too. Stephenson’s treatment of many of the subjects who populate this account is penetrating and sympathetic—be that the irascible Colonel Henry de Coetlogon, the savvy and resolute chief Mataafa or the upright but unbending Captain Eugen Brandeis to name but a few. Why all this fuss? What great riches would bring industrial behemoths like the Germany and the United States to the brink of war? For what bounty do they contend in these islands, so far from their own shores? They contend for the commercial production of copra—dried coconut meat from which coconut oil can be extracted. Coconut oil is an ingredient which can be used in margarine. During the late 19th century, copra was produced across the region including in the Philippines, Tonga, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Lurking behind men like Heinrich Becker and Wilhelm Knappe, Richard Phillips Leary and Harold Marsh Sewall, ever-present are the interests of certain business groups as perhaps embodied on the ground by men like Theodor Weber (Misi Ueba), and Stevenson’s own friend Harry Jay Moors (Misimoa)—whom he described in a letter as the “ablest, wealthiest and best-informed trader in Samoa”. From lobbying in Washington to smuggling in and directly supplying Mataafa’s forces with ammunition, traders like Moors were no mere bystanders but power players. Ultimately, for all the acquisitiveness and power games of man—there is no more apt reminder of where in the schema of our world that true power lies than the first Samoan civil war. “Do not let us weep,” said one Samoan in 1887 before Laupepa’s exile, “We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers.” The strangers with their science and their industry would prove to be quite vincible, after all. Whenever Nature unleashes even a desultory shadow of shattering violence of which it is truly capable, even the mighty tremble and our contentions fall away. At least for a time. (Summary by Alister)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>25518</itunes:duration><itunes:keywords>anthropology,coconut,eight,footnote,imperialism,samoa,samoan,stephenson,stevenson,trouble</itunes:keywords><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/3f17f9a97d9fcdef6327671e6a83899a.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item></channel></rss>
