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Sovereign Sugar: Industry and Environment in Hawai‘i
Although little remains of Hawai‘i’s plantation economy, the sugar industry’s past dominance has created the Hawai‘i we see today. Many of the most pressing and controversial issues―urban and resort development, water rights, expansion of suburbs into agriculturally rich lands, pollution from herbicides, invasive species in native forests, an unsustainable economy―can be tied to Hawai‘i’s industrial sugar history.
Sovereign Sugar unravels the tangled relationship between the sugar industry and Hawai‘i’s cultural and natural landscapes. It is the first work to fully examine the complex tapestry of socioeconomic, political, and environmental forces that shaped sugar’s role in Hawai‘i. While early Polynesian and European influences on island ecosystems started the process of biological change, plantation agriculture, with its voracious need for land and water, profoundly altered Hawai‘i’s landscape.
MacLennan focuses on the rise of industrial and political power among the sugar planter elite and its political-ecological consequences. The book opens in the 1840s when the Hawaiian Islands were under the influence of American missionaries. Changes in property rights and the move toward Western governance, along with the demands of a growing industrial economy, pressed upon the new Hawaiian nation and its forests and water resources. Subsequent chapters trace island ecosystems, plantation communities, and natural resource policies through time―by the 1930s, the sugar economy engulfed both human and environmental landscapes. The author argues that sugar manufacture has not only significantly transformed Hawai‘i but its legacy provides lessons for future outcomes.
Sovereign Sugar unravels the tangled relationship between the sugar industry and Hawai‘i’s cultural and natural landscapes. It is the first work to fully examine the complex tapestry of socioeconomic, political, and environmental forces that shaped sugar’s role in Hawai‘i. While early Polynesian and European influences on island ecosystems started the process of biological change, plantation agriculture, with its voracious need for land and water, profoundly altered Hawai‘i’s landscape.
MacLennan focuses on the rise of industrial and political power among the sugar planter elite and its political-ecological consequences. The book opens in the 1840s when the Hawaiian Islands were under the influence of American missionaries. Changes in property rights and the move toward Western governance, along with the demands of a growing industrial economy, pressed upon the new Hawaiian nation and its forests and water resources. Subsequent chapters trace island ecosystems, plantation communities, and natural resource policies through time―by the 1930s, the sugar economy engulfed both human and environmental landscapes. The author argues that sugar manufacture has not only significantly transformed Hawai‘i but its legacy provides lessons for future outcomes.
392 pages, Hardcover
First published April 30, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 16, 2018
Carol MacLennan's books is ripe with facts and details and anyone with a deep interest in Hawai'i will benefit from reading "Sovereign Sugar."
Having said that, the book often reads like a text (it was, after all, published by the University of Hawai'i Press) and at times gets bogged down in minutiae.
Although I cannot say I enjoyed the story, because the end result is the kidnapping and rape of the Hawaiian islands, I did appreciate the depth of information MacLennan provides.
Hawai'i was a self-sufficient island nation prior to the arrival of the missionaries. Their descendants foisted their mainland culture on the islands, established businesses--especially sugar plantations--and managed to sway the monarchy, infiltrate the government, changed land-ownership rules, disenfranchise the Hawaiian people, alter the environmental fabric, and entice many foreign peoples from China, Japan, and other southeast Asian countries to come to Hawai'i as, essentially, indentured servants, all of which is chronicled in "Sovereign Sugar." In the end, the self-sustaining islands were rendered dependent on imported goods and it would never to be the same.
At the end of every chapter there are a few summary paragraphs. Most people with a passing interest in Hawai'i will probably get as much as they need from these condensed recaps. For those who hunger for more, read the book!
Having said that, the book often reads like a text (it was, after all, published by the University of Hawai'i Press) and at times gets bogged down in minutiae.
Although I cannot say I enjoyed the story, because the end result is the kidnapping and rape of the Hawaiian islands, I did appreciate the depth of information MacLennan provides.
Hawai'i was a self-sufficient island nation prior to the arrival of the missionaries. Their descendants foisted their mainland culture on the islands, established businesses--especially sugar plantations--and managed to sway the monarchy, infiltrate the government, changed land-ownership rules, disenfranchise the Hawaiian people, alter the environmental fabric, and entice many foreign peoples from China, Japan, and other southeast Asian countries to come to Hawai'i as, essentially, indentured servants, all of which is chronicled in "Sovereign Sugar." In the end, the self-sustaining islands were rendered dependent on imported goods and it would never to be the same.
At the end of every chapter there are a few summary paragraphs. Most people with a passing interest in Hawai'i will probably get as much as they need from these condensed recaps. For those who hunger for more, read the book!
March 8, 2016
Deep scholarship into the impact of the sugar industry on Hawaii. The historical perspective is amazing, the details comprehensive, the writing is pretty dry and sometimes repetitive.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews