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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
It was engaging and fun to read, however sad the story. Vowell’s humor brightens up her telling of the winding events that led toward Hawaii’s annexation. I went into it not knowing much, and I’ve come out feeling informed. I think it might have felt a little more digestible if there had been chapters, but I did kind of like the feeling of it all being in one big unfolding chunk of a book.
dark
reflective
sad
I'm not super into Hawaiian history, but to be honest, I'll read anything by Sarah Vowell, even if it was an instruction manual.
informative
slow-paced
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Pretty good book about Hawaii's political and cultural history from missionary times to the overthrow of the queen in the late 1890s. Vowell gets a little wordy and bogged down at one point as she describes all of the U.S. political machinations affecting Hawaii, but otherwise her typical pithy, humorous style shines, and makes the history memorable. I learned a lot, and came away with the understanding the just about everyone involved with Hawaiian and its governance - missionaries, native Hawaiians, U.S. politicians, the French, etc. were complicit in the march toward U.S. territory status and eventual statehood. It's much like the old BBC series, Connections, where one thing seemingly unattached to another is actually integral to that other thing.
And until I read this book I had no idea there were native Hawaiians who could probably become best friends with Republic of Texas types, and that Hawaiian royalty was founded on and pretty much enshrined incest. Amazing.
And until I read this book I had no idea there were native Hawaiians who could probably become best friends with Republic of Texas types, and that Hawaiian royalty was founded on and pretty much enshrined incest. Amazing.
DNF at 25%. I generally like Sarah Vowell's brand of bringing history alive by contextualizing the research that she did instead of just reporting her findings, but here I found it made this book feel like an outsider's appropriation of Hawaiian history. It doesn't help that her version of that history revolves heavily around Christian missionaries, with short shrift given to the native people and their culture. I'm still interested in Hawaii, but I don't think Vowell is the right guide for me.
But if history teaches us anything, upper-class white guys can be exceedingly touchy about taxation.
I love Sarah Vowell and specifically I love her audiobooks. She's my kind of historian -- generally disillusioned to "accomplishments" of white people, and her writing is both educational and hilarious. I didn't know practically anything about the history of Hawaii and its path to becoming part of the US, and was unsurprised and also pretty sad after hearing that it fell into that same, classic American pastime: white people go to "help," they "help" for a bit, they decide people need more of their "help," they destroy everything that wasn't their idea, and then they claim manifest destiny.
Well done, Vowell. And shame on you, White America.
I love Sarah Vowell and specifically I love her audiobooks. She's my kind of historian -- generally disillusioned to "accomplishments" of white people, and her writing is both educational and hilarious. I didn't know practically anything about the history of Hawaii and its path to becoming part of the US, and was unsurprised and also pretty sad after hearing that it fell into that same, classic American pastime: white people go to "help," they "help" for a bit, they decide people need more of their "help," they destroy everything that wasn't their idea, and then they claim manifest destiny.
Well done, Vowell. And shame on you, White America.
challenging
informative
I love Sarah Vowell's books, and especially listening to her narrate the audiobooks. This one brought to life a part of history that I was only partly aware of, and in a very accessible way.
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide