The Coup, the Poet and the Secret to Winning Wimbledon
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
Pushkin Industries
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 7 July 2023
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss..."
Those words - from Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" - were based on charismatic nineteenth century doctor, Leander Starr Jameson. In Britain, Jameson was worshipped as a plucky hero: a bastion of courage and mental fortitude. Ironically, he was also responsible for the Jameson Raid, a South African coup that was an unmitigated disaster.
Kipling's champion might have spearheaded a fiasco - but could the poem "If" hold clues for triumph in another arena?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Pushkin |
| 0:14.0 | Rudyard Kipling is perhaps best known as the author of the Jungle Book. |
| 0:19.0 | The story of the man cub Mowgli, raised by animals such as Baloo the Bear and Bigeera the Black Panther. |
| 0:26.0 | Kipling wrote Powim's too. |
| 0:29.0 | When surveys ask the British public for their all-time favourite Powim, Kipling's If is routinely at the top of the list. |
| 0:38.0 | If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. |
| 0:44.0 | If you can walk with crowds and keep your virtue, if you can fill the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run. |
| 0:54.0 | If is written in the form of paternal life advice from Kipling to his son. |
| 1:00.0 | And what will happen if you do all the things Kipling recommends in the Powim? |
| 1:05.0 | Well then you'll be a man my son. |
| 1:09.0 | But when Kipling wrote this Powim, he had a particular man in mind as his role model. |
| 1:14.0 | That man was Dr Leander Star Jameson. |
| 1:19.0 | Dr Jameson is known today for two things. |
| 1:23.0 | The first is inspiring Kipling to write If. |
| 1:27.0 | The second is the utter fiasco that became known as the Jameson raid. |
| 1:36.0 | The year is 1895 and Dr Leander Star Jameson is all set to invade the South African Republic. |
| 1:44.0 | He has a private army of fewer than 500 men at his command. |
| 1:49.0 | But he reckons that will be more than enough to overthrow the country's government. |
| 1:54.0 | Anyone could take it with half a dozen revolvers. |
| 1:57.0 | I shall get through as easily as a knife cuts through butter. |
| 2:03.0 | Roger had Kipling wasn't alone in his admiration for Dr Jameson. |
| 2:09.0 | By all accounts the short and balding Scotsman had remarkable charisma. |
... |
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