Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“Unfamiliar Fishes” is focused on the history of Hawaii from roughly the time of the establishment of the unified kingdom of Hawaii to the overthrow of the constitutional monarchy and eventual annexation by the United States in 1898. It’s an interesting period of history and there are a lot of people involved, from the Hawaiian royal family, to the New England missionaries and their descendants, to Theodore Roosevelt and Alfred Thayer Mahan. The author does a god job of weaving together the many threads in the story of how Hawaii became part of the United States.
I found the story very interesting and well-told. I’ve read a bit about this over the years, but this is a really good one volume account that covers a somewhat obscure part of history. Certainly the Kingdom of Hawaii is not as well known as, say, the Republic of Texas. But it is an interesting story of how things can start with the best intentions and yet lead to a very unjust result. The author make sa good effort to explain how each group, ethnic, religious or otherwise viewed itself and how they all interacted. In particular, I found the change in the missionary community very interesting. While the original missionaries worried about saving souls and expanding God’s kingdom on earth, their children and grandchildren seems to be much more concerned about profit and loss, and eventually led the movement to overthrow the monarchy.
It’s definitely a good read; very enjoyable and I learned some things too. I recommend this book.