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Podcast: New Books in German Studies
Episode: Holger Droessler, "Coconut Colonialism: Workers and the Globalization of Samoa" (Harvard UP, 2022)
Description: InĀ Coconut Colonialism: Workers and the Globalization of SamoaĀ (Harvard UP, 2022),Ā Holger DroesslerĀ provides a novel history of the impact of globalization on SÄmoa and vice versa. Using a series of case studies, he shows how Samoan workers responded to the rise of capitalism and colonialism in the Pacific in the decades just before and after 1900. Ordinary Samoans -- some on large plantations, others on their own small holdings -- picked and processed coconuts and cocoa, tapped rubber trees, and built roads and ports that brought cash crops to Europe and North America. Samoans also participated in ethnographic shows...