Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen Paperback – November 7, 2016

I loved this book. Every phrase is elegant and precisely used. This style of composition, once the hallmark of the best writing, will be appreciated by anyone who relishes the English language.This remarkable Queen recounts the victimization of Hawaii and how she and her forbears tried to preserve the islands as a free nation.Hawaii’s loss of nationhood began with the arrival of New England Protestant missionaries, self-righteous and eager to proselytize but before long ready to exploit and dispossess. They and their descendants found chickens ready for plucking: a fertile tropical Island of unsuspecting natives who could be ensnared in crooked politics and cheated in land deals.Gradually Hawaii was transformed. Instead of preserving its self-sustaining rural lifestyle, it became the prey of scavengers, the modern barons. Pre-eminent among them was the Dole family which turned the age-old system of small, personal farms into acres of pineapple fields worked by thousands of Chinese “coolies”.In time, this new, wealthy class, using threats and schemes, succeeded in taking control of the government. The Queen’s predecessors yielded of necessity, unable to prevent the disenfranchisement of the vast majority of native inhabitants. Only a tenth of the populace could now vote.Becoming Queen on the death of her brother, Liliuokalani faced alone the implacable empire builders.Powerful interests were working to join Hawaii to the United States. Admiral Mahan, with his worship of sea power, saw that these magnificent islands offered more than plantations: their central position in the Pacific promised an ideal harbor for provisioning ships, dominating shipping lanes and threatening the Asiatic rim. In the end, the Queen’s enemies resorted to brute force and it was finally the marines who trampled on the rights of the Hawaiian people.The Queen was a truly great lady, highly educated, a remarkable writer, a gifted composer (of that heartbreaking hymn to Hawaii, Aloha Oe). Besides a brilliant mind, she possessed a powerful sense of justice and enormous compassion for her Hawaiian subjects. Her patriotism was the pure kind, not that vicious distortion so diligently nurtured in the conquering nation, that chauvinism which features contempt for other cultures as its hallmark. She repeatedly speaks kindly and admiringly of the United States in all respects but this one: that a nation blessed with endless horizons and all the bountiful gifts of nature should covet yet more land, even islands so far from its shores.In addition, being always able to appreciate personal kindness, she speaks warmly and gratefully of President Grover Cleveland. And she remembers President McKinley as a consummate gentleman toward a woman, a fallen Queen and a supplicant for her nation.Her bitterest scorn is reserved for John Leavitt Stevens, the United States Minister to the Kingdom of Hawaii, whose slander turned the government at Washington and the American public against the Royal Family. John Stevens was a figure of Dickensian evil and duplicity, a liar, traducer, schemer, truly the symbol of everything despicable about American colonial policy. He was a fanatic of the sort any decent person would loathe. Such men are a curse to any nation; how criminal that he should have been foisted on the unfortunate Hawaiians. But of course, like all ambassadors, he was carefully chosen for his dishonesty and unscrupulousness. It is astonishing that there is never a scarcity of ruthless functionaries to be inflicted on foreign lands.John Stevens could be counted on to tell his fellow conspirators in Congress what they wanted to hear. With this type of scoundrel a coup d’etat can be guaranteed, and it was.Besides forcing the Queen to abdicate and imprisoning her to stifle her voice, her enemies did not hesitate to lie. She was accused of threatening to cut off the heads of her country’s persecutors, a calumny taught as late as the1940’s and perhaps later -- in volumes called history books.Occasionally chickens do come home to roost and they came for John Stevens, whose daughter drowned while returning from a trip to one of the islands to gather signatures for another of her father’s crooked schemes. This loss darkened the rest of his life.For the truth about this crime against an island people, I strongly recommend Queen Liliuokalani’s history of colonial aggression and domination ending in the tawdry drama of marines marching ashore and surrounding the government buildings of a sovereign nation.

I've been to Hawaii 20 times; I've studied the geology, the tectonics, the flora and fauna, the history, and the culture of these beautiful islands. I've stood next to flowing lava, I've bathed under waterfalls, I've hiked jungle trails, and I've walked black--and even green--sand beaches. I've snorkled among a rainbow of tropical fish and watched the crash of 25 foot waves on volcanic cliffs. What a place!In studying the history and culture of Hawaii, I found Michener's, HAWAII, to be both interesting and informative. Though a novel, I have learned that it is quite accurate in its presentation of events and the portrayal of some of Hawaii's historical characters, though their names and some of their details were fictionalized. One of my favorite books!I strongly recommend reading Liluokalani's book after reading Michener's. It will restate and reinforce many of the facts and ideas presented in Michener's novel--but with the knowledge and passion and grace of an Hawaiian Queen that actually lived through the events of the late 1800s.I enjoyed Liluokalani's writing style--very typical of many authors of 100+ years ago--and--although she is a name-dropper-- I appreciated her beautiful descriptions of her travels and her passion for her people. Any student of aloha should read this book!

Following a recent trip to Oahu and the Bishop Museum, I became interested in learning more about Hawaiian history and the fall of the monarchy. This book caught my eye because it was written by one of Hawaii's own royalty. The many stories that are in this memoir are interesting and insightful, and as they come from the Queen's own experience, they seem to come to life in a very personal narrative form. The Queen is most articulate and well-spoken about her life and the events that led to the fall of the monarchy.

The author was steeped in the history and culture of Hawaii, and this comes across in the immediacy of the text. It’s beautifully written, and very accessible. Highly recommended.