A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa

About this film

LibriVox recording of A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa by Robert Louis Stevenson. Read in English by Alister. 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 d…

Directors & creators

Robert Louis Stevenson

Subjects

librivox; audiobooks;Samoa; imperialism; polynesia; german empire; apia; mataafa iosefo; gunboat diplomacy; tupua tamasese titimaea; samoan civil war

View on archive.org ↗