-
Blood Rubber
- How the Amazon Died
- Narrated by: Richard I Moss
- Length: 2 hrs and 39 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $1.43
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
Blood Rubber: How the Amazon Died tells the extraordinary story of one of the blackest episodes in Amazonian history, known as the Putumayo Affair.
In 1907 Walter Hardenburg, a young American explorer and engineer, was canoeing slowly down a meandering tributary of the great river, in deepest Amazonia, in search of adventure. The realm of Captain Kurtz’s Apocalypse Now seems tame by comparison with what he found through the mist up ahead. Hardenburg had entered the rubber domain of Julio César Arana, a rubber fiefdom gone mad - where the only law that counted was the ‘Winchester constitution’: the rifle made all the rules.
The native people were routinely enslaved to work the rubber plantations and flogged, raped and tortured to death if they resisted. Something snapped inside the young, idealistic Hardenburg when he witnessed these scenes of horror: thousands of native people were being slaughtered to satisfy the West’s insatiable demand for rubber. The rubber extraction methods that produced car tires, rubber hoses and countless other products relied on an entrenched system of utter barbarism.
Hardenburg vowed to seek justice for the thousands of victims of the Putumayo atrocities and to publicize the destruction of their lives and culture across the world. This is the story of how he did it. Blood Rubber is about the power of one versus the power of the machine...of utter evil versus improbable goodness.
Adam Courtenay is an Australian adventurer and writer who canoed up the Amazon as part of his research for this book. He has trekked some of the world’s most enthralling and difficult trails: retraced Hannibal’s footsteps over the Alps; slogged over the Kokoda Trail in New Guinea; and walked the Aboriginal Larapinta ‘Dreamtime’ in the central Australian desert.
As a journalist he has worked for the Financial Times and as a Sydney-based correspondent for the UK’s Sunday Times. He currently writes for The Sydney Morning Herald/Age and is the Australia correspondent for the online finance platform TradingFloor.com.
His interest in Amazonian history goes back five years - he has explored the Amazon twice and written one ebook, Grand Mistresses of the Amazon. He is currently writing a larger nonfiction work on the entire history of the Amazon basin, which he plans to publish soon as Amazon Men.
Related to this topic
-
King Leopold's Ghost
- A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the late 1890s, Edmund Dene Morel, a young British shipping company agent, noticed something strange about the cargoes of his company's ships as they arrived from and departed for the Congo. Incoming ships were crammed with valuable ivory and rubber. Outbound ships carried little more than soldiers and firearms. Correctly concluding that only slave labor could account for these cargoes, Morel almost singlehandedly made this slave-labor regime the premier human rights story in the world.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Edith on 01-20-11
By: Adam Hochschild
-
Between Man and Beast
- An Unlikely Explorer, the Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure that Took the Victorian World By Storm
- By: Monte Reel
- Narrated by: Bob Walter
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1856 Paul Du Chaillu marched into the equatorial wilderness of West Africa determined to bag an animal that, according to legend, was nothing short of a monster. When he emerged three years later, the summation of his efforts only hinted at what he'd experienced in one of the most dangerous regions on earth. Armed with an astonishing collection of zoological specimens, Du Chaillu leapt from the physical challenges of the jungle straight into the center of the biggest issues of the time.
-
-
Extraordinary book! Masterpiece.
- By BVerité on 04-23-13
By: Monte Reel
-
Explorers of the Nile
- The Triumph and Tragedy of a Great Victorian Adventure
- By: Tim Jeal
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From award-winning author Tim Jeal comes a vivid examination of the six larger-than-life men and one extraordinary woman who set out to find the source of the White Nile in the 19th century.
-
-
Great Story Flawed
- By The Mays-Dickens Family on 05-12-12
By: Tim Jeal
-
American Lightning
- Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century
- By: Howard Blum
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was an explosion that reverberated across the country—and into the very heart of early-twentieth-century America. On the morning of October 1, 1910, the walls of the Los Angeles Times Building buckled as a thunderous detonation sent men, machinery, and mortar rocketing into the night air. When at last the wreckage had been sifted and the hospital triage units consulted, twenty-one people were declared dead and dozens more injured. But as it turned out, this was just a prelude to the devastation that was to come.
-
-
very interesting popular history
- By D. Littman on 11-28-08
By: Howard Blum
-
River of the Gods
- Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile
- By: Candice Millard
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For millennia the location of the Nile River’s headwaters was shrouded in mystery. In the 19th century, there was a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt. At the same time, European powers sent off waves of explorations intended to map the unknown corners of the globe—and extend their colonial empires.
-
-
Good book by Millard, narrator ruined it
- By Tally D Lykins on 05-25-22
By: Candice Millard
-
The President and the Assassin
- McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century
- By: Scott Miller
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1901, as America tallied its gains from a period of unprecedented imperial expansion, an assassin's bullet shattered the nation's confidence. The shocking murder of President William McKinley threw into stark relief the emerging new world order of what would come to be known as the American Century.
-
-
An Ideal History Book for the Audio Format
- By Nelson Alexander on 09-30-11
By: Scott Miller
-
King Leopold's Ghost
- A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the late 1890s, Edmund Dene Morel, a young British shipping company agent, noticed something strange about the cargoes of his company's ships as they arrived from and departed for the Congo. Incoming ships were crammed with valuable ivory and rubber. Outbound ships carried little more than soldiers and firearms. Correctly concluding that only slave labor could account for these cargoes, Morel almost singlehandedly made this slave-labor regime the premier human rights story in the world.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Edith on 01-20-11
By: Adam Hochschild
-
Between Man and Beast
- An Unlikely Explorer, the Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure that Took the Victorian World By Storm
- By: Monte Reel
- Narrated by: Bob Walter
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1856 Paul Du Chaillu marched into the equatorial wilderness of West Africa determined to bag an animal that, according to legend, was nothing short of a monster. When he emerged three years later, the summation of his efforts only hinted at what he'd experienced in one of the most dangerous regions on earth. Armed with an astonishing collection of zoological specimens, Du Chaillu leapt from the physical challenges of the jungle straight into the center of the biggest issues of the time.
-
-
Extraordinary book! Masterpiece.
- By BVerité on 04-23-13
By: Monte Reel
-
Explorers of the Nile
- The Triumph and Tragedy of a Great Victorian Adventure
- By: Tim Jeal
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From award-winning author Tim Jeal comes a vivid examination of the six larger-than-life men and one extraordinary woman who set out to find the source of the White Nile in the 19th century.
-
-
Great Story Flawed
- By The Mays-Dickens Family on 05-12-12
By: Tim Jeal
-
American Lightning
- Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century
- By: Howard Blum
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was an explosion that reverberated across the country—and into the very heart of early-twentieth-century America. On the morning of October 1, 1910, the walls of the Los Angeles Times Building buckled as a thunderous detonation sent men, machinery, and mortar rocketing into the night air. When at last the wreckage had been sifted and the hospital triage units consulted, twenty-one people were declared dead and dozens more injured. But as it turned out, this was just a prelude to the devastation that was to come.
-
-
very interesting popular history
- By D. Littman on 11-28-08
By: Howard Blum
-
River of the Gods
- Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile
- By: Candice Millard
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For millennia the location of the Nile River’s headwaters was shrouded in mystery. In the 19th century, there was a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt. At the same time, European powers sent off waves of explorations intended to map the unknown corners of the globe—and extend their colonial empires.
-
-
Good book by Millard, narrator ruined it
- By Tally D Lykins on 05-25-22
By: Candice Millard
-
The President and the Assassin
- McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century
- By: Scott Miller
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1901, as America tallied its gains from a period of unprecedented imperial expansion, an assassin's bullet shattered the nation's confidence. The shocking murder of President William McKinley threw into stark relief the emerging new world order of what would come to be known as the American Century.
-
-
An Ideal History Book for the Audio Format
- By Nelson Alexander on 09-30-11
By: Scott Miller
-
Eureka
- The Unfinished Revolution
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Robert Meldrum
- Length: 22 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1854, Victorian miners fought a deadly battle under the flag of the Southern Cross at the Eureka Stockade. Though brief and doomed to fail, the battle is legend in both our history and in the Australian mind. Henry Lawson wrote poems about it, its symbolic flag is still raised, and even the nineteenth-century visitor Mark Twain called it: "a strike for liberty". Was this rebellion a fledgling nation’s first attempt to assert its independence under colonial rule? Or was it merely rabble-rousing by unruly miners determined not to pay their taxes?
-
-
A gentle telling
- By Mr on 01-24-13
By: Peter FitzSimons
-
Meet You in Hell
- Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership that Transformed America
- By: Les Standiford
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is history that reads like fiction: the riveting story of two founding fathers of American industry, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, and the bloody steelworkers' strike that transformed their fabled partnership into a furious rivalry. Author Les Standiford begins at the bitter end, when the dying Carnegie proposes a final meeting after two decades of separation. Frick's reply: "Tell him that I'll meet him in hell."
-
-
an extended journalistic tour
- By D. Littman on 06-08-05
By: Les Standiford
-
Dreamers and Deceivers
- True and Untold Stories of the Heroes and Villains Who Made America
- By: Glenn Beck
- Narrated by: Jeremy Lowell
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The new nonfiction from number-one best-selling author and popular radio and television host Glenn Beck.
-
-
Astounding History stories gather life
- By Gil on 11-13-14
By: Glenn Beck
-
The Mark Inside
- A Perfect Swindle, a Cunning Revenge, and a Small History of the Big Con
- By: Amy Reading
- Narrated by: Richard McGonagle
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1919, Texas rancher J. Frank Norfleet lost everything he had in a stock market swindle. He did what many other marks did - he went home, borrowed more money from his family, and returned for another round of swindling. Only after he lost that second fortune did he reclaim control of his story. Instead of crawling back home in shame, he vowed to hunt down the five men who had conned him. Through Norfleet's ingenious reverse-swindle, Amy Reading reveals the mechanics behind the scenes of the big con.
-
-
Confusing Premise Makes for A Tough Read
- By Grumpy S. Monkey on 06-19-12
By: Amy Reading
-
The Jaguar Smile
- A Nicaraguan Journey
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"I did not go to Nicaragua intending to write a book, or, indeed, to write at all: but my encounter with the place affected me so deeply that in the end I had no choice." So notes Salman Rushdie in his first work of nonfiction, a book as imaginative and meaningful as his acclaimed novels. In The Jaguar Smile, Rushdie paints a brilliantly sharp and haunting portrait of the people, the politics, the terrain, and the poetry of "a country in which the ancient, opposing forces of creation and destruction were in violent collision".
-
-
simply Amazing!
- By Cesar Briones on 07-01-18
By: Salman Rushdie
-
The Wonga Coup
- Guns, Thugs, and the Steely Determination to Create Mayhem
- By: Adam Roberts
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With so little to recommend it, why in March 2004 was Equatorial Guinea the target of a group of salty British, South African, and Zimbabwean mercenaries, traveling on an American-registered ex-National Guard plane specially adapted for military purposes that was originally flown to Africa by American pilots?
-
-
Dictators and dogs of war, beware
- By PearlGirl on 11-05-06
By: Adam Roberts
-
Into Africa
- The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone
- By: Martin Dugard
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" So goes the signature introduction of New York Herald star journalist Henry Morton Stanley to renowned explorer Dr. David Livingstone, who had been missing for six years in the wilds of Africa. Into Africa ushers us into the meeting of these remarkable men. In 1866, when Livingstone journeyed into the heart of the African continent in search of the Nile's source, the land was rough, unknown to Europeans, and inhabited by man-eating tribes.
-
-
Riveting
- By Gene on 04-01-04
By: Martin Dugard
-
Man-Eater
- The Life and Legend of an American Cannibal
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the winter of 1873, a small band of prospectors lost their way in the frozen wilderness of the Colorado Rockies. Months later, when the snow finally melted, only one of them emerged. His name was Alfred G. Packer, though he would soon become infamous throughout the country under a different name: "the Man-Eater."
-
-
Made me hungry. Just kidding.
- By daniel on 05-01-17
By: Harold Schechter
-
The First Family
- Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder, and the Birth of the American Mafia
- By: Mike Dash
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before the Five Families who so notoriously dominated U.S. organized crime for a bloody half-century, there was the one-fingered, surpassingly cunning Giuseppe Morello and his murderous coterie of brothers. Born into a life of poverty in rural Sicily, Morello became an American nightmare, pioneering the bizarre initiation rituals, imaginative protection rackets, influential underworld reigns, and Mafia wars later popularized by countless books, television shows, and movies.
-
-
The truth about the origins of the American mafia
- By J. Sovar on 01-09-13
By: Mike Dash
-
A Bright and Guilty Place
- Murder, Corruption, and L.A.'s Scandalous Coming of Age
- By: Richard Rayner
- Narrated by: Brett Barry
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In A Bright and Guilty Place, an exhilarating tale of murder in L.A., Richard Rayner finds the source of the city's darkness in real-life events that unfolded in the 1920s, when the booming early years of L.A. started to shade into the Depression, and the city of sunshine revealed the hidden darkness and corruption at its heart.
-
-
Didn't hold my interest
- By Hopesurvives on 11-03-17
By: Richard Rayner
-
The Road to Dawn: Josiah Henson and the Story That Sparked the Civil War
- By: Jared A. Brock
- Narrated by: Ryan Vincent Anderson
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This sweeping biography about the man who was the inspiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is an epic tale of courage and bravery in the face of unimaginable trials. The Road to Dawn tells the improbable story of Josiah Henson - a dynamic, driven man with exceptional intelligence and unyielding principles, who overcame incredible odds to escape from slavery and improve the lives of hundreds of freedmen throughout his long life. He was immortalized by Harriet Beecher Stowe in her 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.
-
-
Great book and very informative
- By plcd22 on 07-04-18
By: Jared A. Brock
-
Girt
- The Unauthorised History of Australia, Volume 1
- By: David Hunt
- Narrated by: David Hunt
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Girt. No word could better capture the essence of Australia.... In this hilarious history, David Hunt reveals the truth of Australia's past, from megafauna to Macquarie - the cock-ups and curiosities, the forgotten eccentrics and Eureka moments that have made us who we are. Girt introduces forgotten heroes like Mary McLoghlin, transported for the crime of "felony of sock", and Trim the cat, who beat a French monkey to become the first animal to circumnavigate Australia.
-
-
Typically irreverent.
- By patricia heffernan on 12-27-15
By: David Hunt
What listeners say about Blood Rubber
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- mr_persnickity
- 02-20-16
Loved Every Moment
But I realized it's length perfectly suited the story being told. The narrator was very, very well matched to the story line. An important story well told.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!