This reader-friendly Hawaiian history tells the islands' story from the
arrival of the very first Polynesian settlers in the 300s to the most
recent strivings for native Hawaiian sovereignty. The harsh regime of
Hawaii's chiefs, the landing and death of Captain Cook, Kamehameha's
bloody conquests, the profound influence of American missionaries, the
wild whaling days, French and British interventions, the sugar barons,
the arrival of different ethnic groups to work the plantations, the
coup d'etat, the demise of the native monarchy, the coming of US
political control, the territorial years, World War I, Pearl Harbor and
World War II, the striving for statehood, and the post-war tourist
avalanche and economic doldrums--all are part of this history.
Hawaii features special sections on the birth and death of the
islands, descriptions by famous writers such as Mark Twain, accounts of
tsunamis, the great volcanoes, Jaws the wave, hula, Hawaiian cowboys,
and the revival of ocean voyaging.