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Paradise of the Pacific: Approaching Hawaii
The dramatic history of America's tropical paradise
The history of Hawaii may be said to be the story of arrivals--from the eruption of volcanoes on the ocean floor 18,000 feet below, the first hardy seeds that over millennia found their way to the islands, and the confused birds blown from their migratory routes, to the early Polynesian adventurers who sailed across the Pacific in double canoes, the Spanish galleons en route to the Philippines, and the British navigators in search of a Northwest Passage, soon followed by pious Protestant missionaries, shipwrecked sailors, and rowdy Irish poachers escaped from Botany Bay--all wanderers washed ashore, sometimes by accident. This is true of many cultures, but in Hawaii, no one seems to have left. And in Hawaii, a set of myths accompanied each of these migrants--legends that shape our understanding of this mysterious place.
In Paradise of the Pacific, Susanna Moore, the award-winning author of In the Cut and The Life of Objects, pieces together the elusive, dramatic story of late-eighteenth-century Hawaii--its kings and queens, gods and goddesses, missionaries, migrants, and explorers--a not-so-distant time of abrupt transition, in which an isolated pagan world of human sacrifice and strict taboo, without a currency or a written language, was confronted with the equally ritualized world of capitalism, Western education, and Christian values.
The history of Hawaii may be said to be the story of arrivals--from the eruption of volcanoes on the ocean floor 18,000 feet below, the first hardy seeds that over millennia found their way to the islands, and the confused birds blown from their migratory routes, to the early Polynesian adventurers who sailed across the Pacific in double canoes, the Spanish galleons en route to the Philippines, and the British navigators in search of a Northwest Passage, soon followed by pious Protestant missionaries, shipwrecked sailors, and rowdy Irish poachers escaped from Botany Bay--all wanderers washed ashore, sometimes by accident. This is true of many cultures, but in Hawaii, no one seems to have left. And in Hawaii, a set of myths accompanied each of these migrants--legends that shape our understanding of this mysterious place.
In Paradise of the Pacific, Susanna Moore, the award-winning author of In the Cut and The Life of Objects, pieces together the elusive, dramatic story of late-eighteenth-century Hawaii--its kings and queens, gods and goddesses, missionaries, migrants, and explorers--a not-so-distant time of abrupt transition, in which an isolated pagan world of human sacrifice and strict taboo, without a currency or a written language, was confronted with the equally ritualized world of capitalism, Western education, and Christian values.
322 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 18, 2015
76 people are currently reading
1137 people want to read
About the author
Susanna Moore
37 books183 followersSusanna Moore is the author of the novels One Last Look, In the Cut, The Whiteness of Bones, Sleeping Beauties, and My Old Sweetheart, which won the Ernest Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for First Fiction, and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her nonfiction travel book, I Myself Have Seen It, was published by the National Geographic Society in 2003. She lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
September 1, 2015
This book is a huge disappointment. Purporting to be a revelatory history, it leaves out many important facts, and misrepresents others. For instance, there is no mention at all of the KU`E petitions. Given that these petitions were signed by over 95% of the subjects of the Hawaiian Kingdom, protesting annexation, and this protest caused the second attempt at annexation to fail, it would seem to me to be a very important topic. It also does not mention that in 1843 the Kingdom of Hawai`i was recognized internationally by England, France and the United States.
On page 250 she says, "....the Congress of the United States voted by joint resolution to annex the Hawaiian Islands. The kingdom of Hawai`i was no more." A joint resolution is NOT a treaty. There was never a treaty of annexation. If a joint resolution of congress could annex an unwilling country, then another country, say, Britain could have both houses of its parliament vote to annex the United States. What was done was against our own Constitution, and International law. As a result, the Kingdom of Hawai`i has never ended. It is still a legal entity. Page 261 she states "...the United States annexed the Islands in 1898, with little resistance from the Hawaiians, ......sought such a treaty." There was HUGE resistance... the KU`E petitions demonstrate this. There was NO treaty. Hence, President Clinton issued a formal apology to the people of Hawai`i for the illegal act done to their nation.
These facts are well known, and it puzzles me why this "history" has been so slanted.
On page 250 she says, "....the Congress of the United States voted by joint resolution to annex the Hawaiian Islands. The kingdom of Hawai`i was no more." A joint resolution is NOT a treaty. There was never a treaty of annexation. If a joint resolution of congress could annex an unwilling country, then another country, say, Britain could have both houses of its parliament vote to annex the United States. What was done was against our own Constitution, and International law. As a result, the Kingdom of Hawai`i has never ended. It is still a legal entity. Page 261 she states "...the United States annexed the Islands in 1898, with little resistance from the Hawaiians, ......sought such a treaty." There was HUGE resistance... the KU`E petitions demonstrate this. There was NO treaty. Hence, President Clinton issued a formal apology to the people of Hawai`i for the illegal act done to their nation.
These facts are well known, and it puzzles me why this "history" has been so slanted.
May 16, 2016
A really enjoyable read. If I had been her editor, I think I would have encouraged her to put more of the content from the final chapter, which summarizes her big-picture analysis of Hawaiian history, at the start of the book, and I would have pressed her to organize the book - broken into several more chapters - around those themes. Even though the research was clearly there, and the writing was excellent, the book often felt directionless.
Scattered within this book is a powerful treatise on the (sometimes unintentional) role of missionaries in colonizing and overthrowing a country. The author strives to humanize many of the missionaries, and even explores how they were unexpectedly influenced and in some cases overcome by the beauty and grace of of the Hawaiian people (I especially love the account of the missionary who quit, married a Hawaiian, and became a dairy farmer). But she can't hide the missionaries' destructive influence, how their hollowing-out of Polynesian culture left a people who persist in poverty and melancholy, or fail to examine how the missionaries' conversion of key figures allowed them to become the de facto lawmakers and genuine power brokers in the islands, eventually to become the wealthy elite who arranged for the annexation of the islands by the U.S, and whose families still own most of the property and hold most of the wealth in Hawaii today.
There are many kinds of misguided people in the world, doing more harm than good. But the joyless, god-bothering, Bible-thumping Calvinist clergymen and their miserable wives who spread out over the Pacific in the 19th century will always hold a special place for loathing in my heart.
Other highlights:
The well-supported assertion that Hawaiian pagan traditions were disrupted months before the first wave of missionaries arrived - in part due to contact with traders and whale ships, but mainly resulting from internal power struggles.
The profile of Kaʻahumanu. The author suggests that every move she made from abolishing the pagan gods, to the lifting of various dietary taboos and restrictions on women, to undergoing baptism late in her life, was aimed at preserving her dwindling influence.
If you've read the famous Michener book about Hawaii, you'll recognize several characters from the "From a Farm of Bitterness" chapter, and notice that his characters are composites of several other historical figures.
Scattered within this book is a powerful treatise on the (sometimes unintentional) role of missionaries in colonizing and overthrowing a country. The author strives to humanize many of the missionaries, and even explores how they were unexpectedly influenced and in some cases overcome by the beauty and grace of of the Hawaiian people (I especially love the account of the missionary who quit, married a Hawaiian, and became a dairy farmer). But she can't hide the missionaries' destructive influence, how their hollowing-out of Polynesian culture left a people who persist in poverty and melancholy, or fail to examine how the missionaries' conversion of key figures allowed them to become the de facto lawmakers and genuine power brokers in the islands, eventually to become the wealthy elite who arranged for the annexation of the islands by the U.S, and whose families still own most of the property and hold most of the wealth in Hawaii today.
There are many kinds of misguided people in the world, doing more harm than good. But the joyless, god-bothering, Bible-thumping Calvinist clergymen and their miserable wives who spread out over the Pacific in the 19th century will always hold a special place for loathing in my heart.
Other highlights:
The well-supported assertion that Hawaiian pagan traditions were disrupted months before the first wave of missionaries arrived - in part due to contact with traders and whale ships, but mainly resulting from internal power struggles.
The profile of Kaʻahumanu. The author suggests that every move she made from abolishing the pagan gods, to the lifting of various dietary taboos and restrictions on women, to undergoing baptism late in her life, was aimed at preserving her dwindling influence.
If you've read the famous Michener book about Hawaii, you'll recognize several characters from the "From a Farm of Bitterness" chapter, and notice that his characters are composites of several other historical figures.
September 29, 2019
This could have and should have been an extremely interesting history of the Hawaiian Islands but the author couldn't seem to settle to a cohesive storyline. Instead, the historical threads wander all over the place, back and forward, in and out so that it is an ultimately confusing narrative of the flora and fauna, the origin tales of the people, the taboos and royal lines, the missionaries and a scant (very scant) story of annexation by the Americans. There is so much repetition it is very hard to keep track of personages and timelines and every chapter is interspersed with Hawaiian chants and poetry.
Still, there are some good stories of the royalty of Hawaii and their interaction with the various white people that they encounter. This is overall a sad story of an innocent and happy people who were devasted by disease and taken advantage of repeatedly until finally even their country was stolen from them.
Still, there are some good stories of the royalty of Hawaii and their interaction with the various white people that they encounter. This is overall a sad story of an innocent and happy people who were devasted by disease and taken advantage of repeatedly until finally even their country was stolen from them.
October 19, 2021
This book promises to tell an unknown historical epic but only muddles along to an unsatisfying conclusion. The history of Hawaii, the coming of Europeans and the settlement and ultimate acquisition by the United States, all should make for a colorful tale of pageantry and cultural misunderstanding. The problem is Moore's overreliance on her (admittedly colorful) sources. They offer great detail on life in a tropical paradise but there is little analysis to accompany them. This is one of those history books that assumes long passages from previous works is sufficient on its own. I do not agree; such cut-and-paste books feel long and unedited. A disappointing result derived from fascinating subject matter.
June 12, 2021
Susanna Moore covers the history of Hawaii in a fairly flat voice, starting with the era immediately before the arrival of Captain Cook and ending with end of the last effective royalty in Hawaii. Thus she stops short of the US annexation, seeming to view that as an inevitable endgame to the alterations in Hawaiian society with the arrival of the rest of the world. Moore goes into a lot of detail about battles and events before Cook, with so many names of people and places it is hard to keep track. But you don't really have to, as the history unfolds the path is clear, and listening to all the Hawaiian words was really quite pleasant. I thought this a valuable history.
August 14, 2023
This book moves at breakneck speed, covering centuries of complicated history and culture in just 262 pages. In many ways, I appreciate that (and I also appreciate the lovely cover, which is why I bought this in the first place)-- but the obvious consequence is superficiality. If you consider, for example, the remarkably lengthy (albeit fictional) treatment of the same material in Hawaii, it makes one wonder why Moore was so rushed. I learned very little about the flora and fauna of the islands, and you'd be forgiven for forgetting that Hawai'i has any volcanoes while reading this book. The 1893 coup d'etat is barely explained. The ultimate U.S. annexation is presented with considerably less depth and subtlety than you'll find on the Hawai'i wikipedia page. The science on the spread of disease, changes in population and birth rates, etc. is also lacking, making Moore's commentary on those issues just sound speculative.
The missionary period from about 1820-1870 dominates the book, with Moore mostly blaming those "New England" missionaries for the decimation and deterioration of the population and culture, including everything from the overthrow of the monarchy to annexation to rising alcoholism and plummeting fertility. There's mention of non-New-England-Protestantism, but the history of Catholic and Mormon missionaries isn't developed enough for us to understand their impact (if any) and how their undoubtedly different views on more nuanced issues of politics and doctrine undermine or support Moore's thesis. Many of the specifics she does give about the missionaries' views will seem fairly reasonable to most modern readers (like opposing infanticide, ritual murder, brother-sister incest, and prostitution). The evidence tying the missionaries' conduct to the later-- and by "later," I mean literally more than 50 years after Hiram Bingham left-- collapse of the monarchy and annexation is presented sketchily, at best. Moore tells us it's the rapacious descendants of these early missionaries who benefited politically or economically, and recites for us all the positive outcomes that they had. It's not a uniformly compelling list by any means (one grandson went to Columbia law school, another great-grandson married the granddaughter of a rich guy, several others continued living in Hawai'i and owned property or businesses there), but even if it were, the culpability of a non-rapacious prior generation still seems pretty attenuated.
It's not to say that the thesis is clearly wrong; I'm not sure how you could tell either way without consulting outside sources. And it's not that I needed this book to be 900 pages to be satisfied, either. 262 pages is a great length, if the scope has been appropriately narrowed. Here it just wasn't.
The missionary period from about 1820-1870 dominates the book, with Moore mostly blaming those "New England" missionaries for the decimation and deterioration of the population and culture, including everything from the overthrow of the monarchy to annexation to rising alcoholism and plummeting fertility. There's mention of non-New-England-Protestantism, but the history of Catholic and Mormon missionaries isn't developed enough for us to understand their impact (if any) and how their undoubtedly different views on more nuanced issues of politics and doctrine undermine or support Moore's thesis. Many of the specifics she does give about the missionaries' views will seem fairly reasonable to most modern readers (like opposing infanticide, ritual murder, brother-sister incest, and prostitution). The evidence tying the missionaries' conduct to the later-- and by "later," I mean literally more than 50 years after Hiram Bingham left-- collapse of the monarchy and annexation is presented sketchily, at best. Moore tells us it's the rapacious descendants of these early missionaries who benefited politically or economically, and recites for us all the positive outcomes that they had. It's not a uniformly compelling list by any means (one grandson went to Columbia law school, another great-grandson married the granddaughter of a rich guy, several others continued living in Hawai'i and owned property or businesses there), but even if it were, the culpability of a non-rapacious prior generation still seems pretty attenuated.
It's not to say that the thesis is clearly wrong; I'm not sure how you could tell either way without consulting outside sources. And it's not that I needed this book to be 900 pages to be satisfied, either. 262 pages is a great length, if the scope has been appropriately narrowed. Here it just wasn't.
June 12, 2025
Another great history of Hawaii. I finished this as I landed in Honolulu 🌺
April 10, 2016
I liked this book and was highly motivated to love it. 1. It was written by Susanna Moore, whom I have long considered one of my favorite authors. 2. I had a burning desire to read about the history of Hawai'i by someone who clearly loves and understand Hawai'i. 3. I was so ready for a non-fiction book after a string of fiction. That being said, let me almost repeat myself.
I liked this book, BUT I was highly motivated to LOVE it. Unfortunately, Susanna Moore didn't write in a clear enough way for me to follow necessary historical parts. Her writing background meant that the more narrative portions were quite engaging, although there was a notable lack of narrative thrust throughout, but the parts where I needed to follow chronologies, or understand cultural minutiae, or become familiar with the monarchy's family trees...she really failed me there. I was so confused during much of the book simply because of this. I had trouble knowing where certain events fell, since she went back and forth in order to keep to common threads - understandable, but not helpful without a timeline or something to refer to. Also, with so many unfamiliar names, nearly all of them starting with K, it was hard to keep them straight, not to mention keep them distinct from one another. (On a related matter, I almost NEVER found words that I wanted to look up in the woefully brief glossary. It felt like most of the italicized words I tried to look up were left out, so I spent the entire book trying to remember if I was supposed to know what they meant.) Also, the pictures included throughout the book were almost irrelevant to the pages they were found on, and in fact, sometimes didn't even seem to match the characters written about in the part of the book I was reading.
Finally, I have to say that one of Ms. Moore's writing idiosyncrasies really bothered me in this book. She'd write a sentence and then add a totally appropriate parenthetical sentence, but without actually using correct sentence structure. Like this (here's where she'd have a sentence without a capital letter to start, and without a period to end it). ARRGHH!
OK, that last point is a minor quibble, I suppose. I actually liked the book, but possibly only BECAUSE I was motivated to love it. Bottom line, it was more of a chore for me to finish it than it should have been. But, finish it I did, if only because I was, as stated above, highly motivated to LOVE this book (it never happened). See how annoying that last "sentence" is???
I liked this book, BUT I was highly motivated to LOVE it. Unfortunately, Susanna Moore didn't write in a clear enough way for me to follow necessary historical parts. Her writing background meant that the more narrative portions were quite engaging, although there was a notable lack of narrative thrust throughout, but the parts where I needed to follow chronologies, or understand cultural minutiae, or become familiar with the monarchy's family trees...she really failed me there. I was so confused during much of the book simply because of this. I had trouble knowing where certain events fell, since she went back and forth in order to keep to common threads - understandable, but not helpful without a timeline or something to refer to. Also, with so many unfamiliar names, nearly all of them starting with K, it was hard to keep them straight, not to mention keep them distinct from one another. (On a related matter, I almost NEVER found words that I wanted to look up in the woefully brief glossary. It felt like most of the italicized words I tried to look up were left out, so I spent the entire book trying to remember if I was supposed to know what they meant.) Also, the pictures included throughout the book were almost irrelevant to the pages they were found on, and in fact, sometimes didn't even seem to match the characters written about in the part of the book I was reading.
Finally, I have to say that one of Ms. Moore's writing idiosyncrasies really bothered me in this book. She'd write a sentence and then add a totally appropriate parenthetical sentence, but without actually using correct sentence structure. Like this (here's where she'd have a sentence without a capital letter to start, and without a period to end it). ARRGHH!
OK, that last point is a minor quibble, I suppose. I actually liked the book, but possibly only BECAUSE I was motivated to love it. Bottom line, it was more of a chore for me to finish it than it should have been. But, finish it I did, if only because I was, as stated above, highly motivated to LOVE this book (it never happened). See how annoying that last "sentence" is???
August 18, 2020
Purchase Paradise of the Pacific here for just $12!
I thought this book was truly incredible. Such an interesting look into how people lived in Hawaii before colonisation. Such an elegant and eloquent way of telling this story - a horrible yet fascinating story, one that describes the effect that colonisation has on the most beautiful cultures in the world.
Brooke - The Book Grocer
I thought this book was truly incredible. Such an interesting look into how people lived in Hawaii before colonisation. Such an elegant and eloquent way of telling this story - a horrible yet fascinating story, one that describes the effect that colonisation has on the most beautiful cultures in the world.
Brooke - The Book Grocer
March 23, 2023
DNF. I anticipated this book would be an interesting read. I was disappointed. I struggled to finish the book but in the end had to give up on it. There is a lack of cohesion in the story. There is no consistent timeline. The author relies extensively on quotes from the journals of missionaries, who first arrived early in the 19th century. However there is little analysis of historical events and the interactions between the missionaries and native Hawaiians. There are so many other good books to read; I’m not going to waste my time on trying to finish a book that is a struggle to read.
October 4, 2022
It was very frustrating to read English translation without the Hawai'i source. The author admittedly goes back and forth between sympathy for Hawai'i at the hands of missionaries and also sympathy for the missionaries. This ambivalence kept me from fully diving into the book, let alone trusting the writer. Though Moore has her moments of literary prowess, she seems so keen to portray a Hawai'i complicit in its undoing.
February 19, 2023
Expansive, tragic, lushly told history
The culture and daily living of the Hawaiian people is thrown into chaos several times in this sweeping historical book, but all is not to be blamed on missionaries. There is much to capture the imagination in this detailed, rich telling of the story of the royals and their ruling lands and people of the islands, especially Kamehameha, the first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The role of Kaʻahumanu, one of the more powerful figures after his death, is well told with details that are unexpected and captivating. It's a must read for anyone wanting a better sense of the depth of the twists of history of all things Hawaiian.
The culture and daily living of the Hawaiian people is thrown into chaos several times in this sweeping historical book, but all is not to be blamed on missionaries. There is much to capture the imagination in this detailed, rich telling of the story of the royals and their ruling lands and people of the islands, especially Kamehameha, the first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The role of Kaʻahumanu, one of the more powerful figures after his death, is well told with details that are unexpected and captivating. It's a must read for anyone wanting a better sense of the depth of the twists of history of all things Hawaiian.
Want to read
February 25, 2016NYRB review: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2015/...
November 24, 2020
VERY interesting, for those who plan to live there or those who already live there. Heavily researched, actual history of the Hawai'ian Islands. Written in 2015, this being 2020, it's a little outdated. There are maps and some 55-odd pen & ink drawings and photos, of which I had only seen one or two. Ms. Moore is VERY careful not to censure Captain Cook and his minions and / or the Missionaries for their dress or belief systems, which brought the Hawai'ians into our century, but reduced the population from hundreds of thousands to approximately 40,000. In the back are four pages of a "Glossary" and three pages of "Gods and Personages" named in this book. The best Hawaiian Dictionary is still, to my mind, by Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel H, Elbert. It has Hawai'ian to English and visa -versa. 573 pages.
There are active groups of Hawai'ians who have gotten all the active ordinances(sp?) off Kaho'olawe and are working to restore the island; white people can go there overnight with a (difficult to obtain permit. Oahu and Maui are still tourist traps, except for the leeward sides of the islands. Ni'ihau is exclusively for Hawai'ians. Kawai'i is little, sparsely populated, and has several nice beaches, and beautiful, The Big Island, Hawai'i, is bigger than all the islands put together but is not a populated as Maui or Oahu. Land is not as expensive on the Puna / Hilo side, but there are only TWO beaches; the Kona side has many beaches and a more upscale population. There are airports on both sides of the island, and a hospital on the Hilo side. In April there is a big hula Halau in the stadium in Hilo, the Merrie Monarch Festival, where native Hawai'ians and hula groups from all over the world compete.
There are active groups of Hawai'ians who have gotten all the active ordinances(sp?) off Kaho'olawe and are working to restore the island; white people can go there overnight with a (difficult to obtain permit. Oahu and Maui are still tourist traps, except for the leeward sides of the islands. Ni'ihau is exclusively for Hawai'ians. Kawai'i is little, sparsely populated, and has several nice beaches, and beautiful, The Big Island, Hawai'i, is bigger than all the islands put together but is not a populated as Maui or Oahu. Land is not as expensive on the Puna / Hilo side, but there are only TWO beaches; the Kona side has many beaches and a more upscale population. There are airports on both sides of the island, and a hospital on the Hilo side. In April there is a big hula Halau in the stadium in Hilo, the Merrie Monarch Festival, where native Hawai'ians and hula groups from all over the world compete.
May 28, 2017
Interesting history of the islands, though at the beginning it sounded like all the references were negative. Later, it did say that some of the sources of the information (the missionaries) later changed their minds after getting to know the people, but the majority of the reports seemed negative, which felt one-sided. When you finally heard the other side of the story, it might have been too late.
Also, I think I should have read a paper or electronic version. The narrator read the names as they should be pronounced, but I tend to have problem remembering names I can't pronounce. (I had the same problem with the Welsh tales of the Mabinogian.) I think if I could have seen them, it would have been easier.
I'm glad I read it, though; I didn't realize the role that American businessmen, missionaries, and other interests had in taking over these islands. Okay, so maybe some of the royalty was getting out of hand, but did that justify a takeover? How would we feel if someone took over our country just because a present leader was out of hand?
Also, I think I should have read a paper or electronic version. The narrator read the names as they should be pronounced, but I tend to have problem remembering names I can't pronounce. (I had the same problem with the Welsh tales of the Mabinogian.) I think if I could have seen them, it would have been easier.
I'm glad I read it, though; I didn't realize the role that American businessmen, missionaries, and other interests had in taking over these islands. Okay, so maybe some of the royalty was getting out of hand, but did that justify a takeover? How would we feel if someone took over our country just because a present leader was out of hand?
January 11, 2020
If you are going to read one historical account of Hawaii, this book should not be it. Though it is more or less chronological in layout, the book really does not flow well. Rather it comes off as a loose collection of essays. To further chop-up the flow, the author irritatingly breaks up seemingly every page with block quotes. It comes off as mish-mash of accounts rather than a true narrative. In addition I found her writing voice distant, aloof, neutral to the point of neutered, and both uninterested and uninteresting. This is not a bad book but rather just a boring one. Read the chapters as discrete units and it is much palatable. At the same that I was reading this I was also reading Daws’ Shoal of Time. It too has some flaws (dated language use for one), but he truly tells the story of Hawaii and with a style that is dry but engaging. Go there or perhaps Haley’s Captive Paradise (just starting) first.
August 13, 2019
I read this book because it was the only Hawaiian title available at my local library. Preparing for a trip to the islands, I wanted a breezy overview of their history. This was instead an extremely close look at Hawaiians’ encounters with Europeans starting with Captain Cook and ending with the 1893 annexation by the US. Actually, the bulk of it deals with the lives of a few Hawaiian leaders, particularly Kamehameha I and his favorite wife Ka’ahumanu. The author is a good writer and very thorough in her descriptions of them and Hawai’i’s unique culture pre-contact. I agree with other reviewers, however, that the subject matter could be better framed and given more focus.
July 3, 2018
"[T]he religion of the Hawaiians was not based on doctrine. The importance of ancestors grew from their supposed ability to provide protection, just as the kapu were in place to protect men from all that they could not control or understand. In abolishing the gods and with them a system of kapu that had served to determine the behavior, spiritual and mundane, of both chiefs and commoners, the ali'i relinquished the stability and order that come with tradition, and the organizing structure, even if restrictive, of social relationships and responsibilities." (130)
"A seeming unanimity among the chiefs, guided by the indefatigable Ka'ahumanu, concealed much of the growing discontent in the kingdom. The initial curiosity and even fascination felt by the Hawaiians for the new teaching had somewhat dissipated with the strict rules that came with palapala, and many of them longed for the old pleasure-filled days of rum, music, and sport." (227)
"Out of 4,000 convictions in 1874 (presumably most of them of native Hawaiians), 10 were for performing the hula; 348 for the violation of the marriage tie; 67 for desertion; 61 for violating the Sabbath; 674 for drunkenness; 197 for 'furious riding'; 37 for cruelty to animals; and 13 for murder. Apart from murder, all of these convictions are for acts that would not have been considered criminal if it were not for the missionaries." (258)
"A seeming unanimity among the chiefs, guided by the indefatigable Ka'ahumanu, concealed much of the growing discontent in the kingdom. The initial curiosity and even fascination felt by the Hawaiians for the new teaching had somewhat dissipated with the strict rules that came with palapala, and many of them longed for the old pleasure-filled days of rum, music, and sport." (227)
"Out of 4,000 convictions in 1874 (presumably most of them of native Hawaiians), 10 were for performing the hula; 348 for the violation of the marriage tie; 67 for desertion; 61 for violating the Sabbath; 674 for drunkenness; 197 for 'furious riding'; 37 for cruelty to animals; and 13 for murder. Apart from murder, all of these convictions are for acts that would not have been considered criminal if it were not for the missionaries." (258)
September 29, 2019
This is an incredibly researched book, and Moore’s use of primary sources and quotes is superlative. She creates a nuanced and deep view of the people, places, and events and tells this history with brisk, captivating writing. My one quibble is the structure—I sometimes struggled with the way Moore organized and moved between focuses. I’ve seen lots of praise for that aspect, though, so I may just be an outlier.
December 31, 2016
Maybe I've read to many other Hawaii histories and academic research to give this book a fair shake but it just didn't grab me the way others have and seemed lacking in its organization.
Keep in mind I finished this on the back of having read Robert Caro's "The Powerbroker" so it is possible this book's review suffers under the weight of unfair comparison.
Keep in mind I finished this on the back of having read Robert Caro's "The Powerbroker" so it is possible this book's review suffers under the weight of unfair comparison.
April 17, 2018
Like other reviewers have stated, there's a lot of fascinating information in this book. However, it can be difficult to follow at times since it lacks a cohesive throughline. I thought that it was worth a read, especially for those who don't have much knowledge of Hawaiian history, but I would have liked the book to focus in on some of the themes a little more.
December 4, 2020
I read this book just before my first trip to Hawaii since I wanted to know more about the history of this beautiful place I was about to visit. It didn't disappoint. It was a compelling read and I felt a deeper connection with Hawaii's present and past after I read it and it made me relate to Hawaii better when I visited Oahu.
January 9, 2026
Although the book provided some insight - it left a lot to be desired … i felt that it just kept jumping from one topic to another and back to the first. The constant use of italicized native words confused me further.
On the plus side it did give me a glimpse into Hawaii and the changing scene in just 120 years leaving me saddened.
On the plus side it did give me a glimpse into Hawaii and the changing scene in just 120 years leaving me saddened.
October 2, 2017
My rating is low only because so much of the book made me sad in a "there's never any Good-ol Days when it comes to being a women" sort of way. Beyond that It was very interesting.
January 4, 2019
Interesting cultural and anthropological history of Hawaii. I thought it was slow to get started.
December 24, 2018
EXCELLENT book--helps me understand living in Hawaii: why people think the way they do and how they interact with new arrivals. Helps me to be not such an invader.
September 17, 2019
Very informative and well-balanced, I thought. Changed my rose-tinted views/expectations about historical Hawaiian culture and gave me some appreciation for Christian missionaries.
September 20, 2019
Interesting history but needed better editing to make it a cohesive story. I recommend CAPTIVE PARADISE by James L. Haley as a more readable history of Hawaii.
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August 1, 2021Good, but "dense." Not sure of all the missionary references, yet extremely informative.
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October 3, 2022I didn't have a lot of hopes for this book based on the reviews.
So, thankfully, I was not disappointed.
Almost stream of consciousness. Rare fun or interesting tidbits.
So, thankfully, I was not disappointed.
Almost stream of consciousness. Rare fun or interesting tidbits.
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