Feathers and Folly: The Emu War (1932) cover art

Feathers and Folly: The Emu War (1932)

Feathers and Folly: The Emu War (1932)

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 STRIFE! History's Conflicts Podcast: The Great Emu War of 1932 stands as one of history's most surreal and humbling conflicts. It is a brief, bizarre military operation in which the Australian government, armed with machine guns and a WWI veteran, declares war on the nation’s native emu population. This is not a mere comedy of errors but a profound collision between human ambition and the immutable forces of nature. The event reveals a desperate government trying to support its struggling veterans, a military utterly confounded by an unconventional enemy, and a press corps that turns tragedy into a national joke. Its legacy is not one of victory or defeat, but of a hard-learned lesson in humility, a timeless allegory for the folly of applying simplistic, technological solutions to complex ecological and social problems. The story continues to resonate because it is, at its heart, a deeply human tale of resilience in the face of the absurd.
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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.