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Hawaii's Story
Possibly the most important work in Hawaiian literature, Hawai'i's Story is a poignant plea from Hawaii's queen to restore her people's kingdom. Mutual Publishing has been reprinting Hawai'i's Story since 1990, now in 2004, we are re-releasing it in a larger, easier to read format.
424 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1898
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About the author
Liliuokalani
36 books36 followersFrom 1891, Lydia Kamakaeha Paki Liliuokalani ruled and governed as the last queen of the Hawaiian Islands to 1893.
Liliʻuokalani was born Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Wewehi Kamakaʻeha. She reigned as the last monarch and only regnant of the kingdom. She was also known as Lydia Kamakaʻeha Pākī, with the chosen royal name of Liliʻuokalani, and her married name was Lydia K. Dominis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lili%CA...
Liliʻuokalani was born Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Wewehi Kamakaʻeha. She reigned as the last monarch and only regnant of the kingdom. She was also known as Lydia Kamakaʻeha Pākī, with the chosen royal name of Liliʻuokalani, and her married name was Lydia K. Dominis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lili%CA...
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June 10, 2025
Hawaii was an independent kingdom, with a Hawaiian-born monarch of Polynesian heritage, from 1795 to 1893. Since 1959, it has been a non-contiguous state of the American Union. And the process through which that political change began was complicated, and ethically messy, as Liliuokalani, the last queen of Hawaii, makes clear in her 1898 book Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen.
The book is truly an autobiography, and Liliuokalani makes a point of telling her story from the beginning, rather than proceeding directly to the coup d'etat that toppled her from power in 1893. She is proud of her lineage, pointing out that her mother Keohokalole was “one of the fifteen counsellors of the king, Kamehameha III, who in 1840 gave the first written constitution to the Hawaiian people.”
She links another of her ancestors with a key moment in the spiritual life of the Hawaiian kingdom, writing that “my great-aunt was the celebrated Queen Kapiolani, one of the first converts to Christianity. She plucked the sacred berries from the borders of the volcano, descended to the boiling lava, and there, while singing Christian hymns, threw them into the lake of fire. This was the act which broke forever the power of Pele, the fire-goddess, over the hearts of her people.” Throughout the book, Liliuokalani emphasizes her devout Christianity, as if to anticipate and refute the prejudices of any U.S. readers who might be ready to assume that she must be a champion of Hawaii’s pre-Christian religious practices.
Throughout Hawaii’s Story, Liliuokalani defends the way the Hawaiian monarchy governed the kingdom during its century of existence, as when she discusses how the monarchy forbade commoners from selling or mortgaging land within the kingdom. Liliuokalani writes that “It is true that no one of the common people could mortgage or sell his land, but the wisdom of this limitation is abundantly proved by the homeless condition of the Hawaiians at the present day. Rent, eviction of tenants, as understood in other lands, were unknown; but each retainer of any chief contributed, in the production of his holding, to the support of the chief’s table.”
Conflict began to brew between the Hawaiian monarchy and a group of leading Anglo-Americans, descendants of the missionaries who had begun settling in the islands in the early 19th century; Liliuokalani refers to these people as the “missionary party.” An example of this conflict came in May 1864, when King Kamehameha V devised a new constitution to replace one forced that had been forced upon the Hawaiians by the missionaries. Liliuokalani says of this time, “Let it be repeated: the promulgation of a new constitution, adapted to the needs of the times and the demands of the people, has been an indisputable prerogative of the Hawaiian monarchy.”
By 1881, a different king, Kalakaua, ruled at Honolulu, and Liliuokalani, Kalakaua’s sister, writes that that year “is an important page in Hawaiian history, because it shows how persistently, even at that date, the ‘missionary party’ was at work to undermine at every point the authority of the constitutional rulers of the Hawaiian people.”
Kalakaua’s coronation that year brought complaints from the “missionary party” about the costs of the ceremony. Liliuokalani feels that “It was wise and patriotic to spend money to awaken in the people a national pride.” With the grim wisdom born of unhappy hindsight, however, she adds that “Naturally, those among us who did not desire to have Hawaii remain a nation would look on an expenditure of this kind as worse than wasted.”
The “missionary party,” determined to secure Anglo-American hegemony in Hawaii, forced Kalakaua to sign a “Bayonet Constitution” that rendered the Hawaiian monarch little more than a figurehead. Liliuokalani even says that she was invited to conspire against her brother the king. With political instability spreading, a no-doubt-demoralized King Kalakaua departed on a foreign journey, leaving his sister Liliuokalani as regent.
The King died on the journey home, and Liliuokalani was crowned as Queen of Hawaii. She wanted Hawaiians to have a new constitution, and a new constitution that might have restored some of the historic rights and privileges of the Hawaiian monarchy seems to have been an island too far for the “missionary party.”
Liluokalani’s political feelings are clear. She feels that the reign of her brother Kalakaua was, “in a material sense, the golden age of Hawaiian history. The wealth and importance of the Islands enormously increased, and always as a direct consequence of the king’s acts.”
By contrast, the leaders of the “missionary party” come in for plenty of queenly scorn, as when Liliuokalani mentions that “to one of the retiring members [of the Hawaiian cabinet] the appellation 'kauka-kope-kala' subsequently adhered pretty tenaciously. I refrain from translating, as the title is not one of honour; but it still clings to the family as an heirloom.”
Not feeling bound by royal restraint, as the queen evidently did, I conducted a bit of research, and learned that kauka-kope-kala translates from the Hawaiian as “Doctor Money Shovel.” It certainly captures well the feelings of many indigenous Hawaiians regarding the acquisitive ways of some Anglo-Americans in the islands; and if the translation is helpful to you, then he mea iki (you’re welcome).
Events accelerated quickly. The overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy took place in 1893, and Liliuokalani was forced to abdicate. This political turmoil in Hawaii prompted differing responses from the U.S. presidential administrations of Benjamin Harrison (dismissive) and Grover Cleveland (sympathetic), though in neither case did a presidential response change the realities of the Hawaiian situation. An attempt to restore the monarchy resulted in the arrest of Liluokalani (who claimed that she had no knowledge of or involvement in the monarchist plot). Imprisoned and tried on charges of “misprision of treason,” Liliuokalani was convicted and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment at hard labour.
Fortunately, the hard-labour portion of the sentence was never carried out; instead, Her Majesty was kept under house arrest at Iolani Palace. I thought of Liluokalani’s ordeal when, on a recent visit to Hawaii, I walked by the palace in downtown Honolulu, imagining Her Majesty looking out the windows of the elegant building from which she had once reigned over the Kingdom of Hawaii. While imprisoned, she wrote music, including the classic song “Aloha Oe.” From her isolated position as a state prisoner (though she was permitted some retainers and visitors), she heard of the establishment, by the missionary party, of a new “Republic of Hawaii” (she always puts the name of the republic in quotation marks, or calls it a “so-called republic”).
Eventually, Liliuokalani was released on parole, and still later she was informed that her full civil rights had been restored! Yet in that connection, she asks a good question: “If I was deprived of my civil rights at the moment of my imprisonment, of what value was the signature procured to my supposed or alleged act of abdication? Was it legal, of binding force, or effective?” At this remove in time, the behaviour of those who oversaw and orchestrated Hawaii’s move from kingdom to republic, and then toward a new status as territory of the United States, seems shady at best.
Liliuokalani’s post-abdication life seems only to have reinforced her sense that she and her people had been treated cruelly and unjustly by citizens of a larger and more powerful nation. On an 1896 visit to the United States, she crossed the country from west to east by rail, and looked upon “thousands of acres of uncultivated, uninhabited, but rich and fertile lands, soil capable of producing anything which grows, plenty of water, floods of it running to waste, everything needed for pleasant towns and quiet homesteads, except population.” Observing the vast amount of available land within the limits of the contiguous U.S.A., Liliuokalani wonders why “this great and powerful nation must go across two thousand miles of sea, and take from the poor Hawaiians their little spots in the broad Pacific, must take our lands of Hawaii Nei, and extinguish the nationality of my poor people, many of whom have now not a foot of land which can be called their own.”
Writing for a U.S. readership that she knew would be strongly interested in the debate over annexation of Hawaii – it was big news in those days – Liliuokalani tries, in the conclusion of her book, to appeal to the self-interest of readers on the mainland, suggesting that people like the Anglo-American annexationists in Hawaii “are anything but ideal citizens for a democracy”, and that “This annexationist party might prove to be a dangerous accession even to American politics”, because its members, the queen feels, have had “the training of an autocratic life from earliest youth.”
Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen tells a difficult story from a turbulent time. We all know that many of the world’s developed nations, including the United States, could and did engage in imperialist policies in those times; recall President William McKinley’s 1903 declaration that the United States, having gained control of the Philippines during the Spanish-American War, would maintain that control, in order to "uplift and civilize and Christianize" the Philippines - even though the Philippines, named for King Philip of Spain, had been Catholic for 400 years! The campaign to move Hawaii from kingdom to republic to territory seems to follow in that sorry tradition. Liliuokalani’s book reminds us of a time when a singularly beautiful set of islands became the subject of some very ugly political machinations.
The book is truly an autobiography, and Liliuokalani makes a point of telling her story from the beginning, rather than proceeding directly to the coup d'etat that toppled her from power in 1893. She is proud of her lineage, pointing out that her mother Keohokalole was “one of the fifteen counsellors of the king, Kamehameha III, who in 1840 gave the first written constitution to the Hawaiian people.”
She links another of her ancestors with a key moment in the spiritual life of the Hawaiian kingdom, writing that “my great-aunt was the celebrated Queen Kapiolani, one of the first converts to Christianity. She plucked the sacred berries from the borders of the volcano, descended to the boiling lava, and there, while singing Christian hymns, threw them into the lake of fire. This was the act which broke forever the power of Pele, the fire-goddess, over the hearts of her people.” Throughout the book, Liliuokalani emphasizes her devout Christianity, as if to anticipate and refute the prejudices of any U.S. readers who might be ready to assume that she must be a champion of Hawaii’s pre-Christian religious practices.
Throughout Hawaii’s Story, Liliuokalani defends the way the Hawaiian monarchy governed the kingdom during its century of existence, as when she discusses how the monarchy forbade commoners from selling or mortgaging land within the kingdom. Liliuokalani writes that “It is true that no one of the common people could mortgage or sell his land, but the wisdom of this limitation is abundantly proved by the homeless condition of the Hawaiians at the present day. Rent, eviction of tenants, as understood in other lands, were unknown; but each retainer of any chief contributed, in the production of his holding, to the support of the chief’s table.”
Conflict began to brew between the Hawaiian monarchy and a group of leading Anglo-Americans, descendants of the missionaries who had begun settling in the islands in the early 19th century; Liliuokalani refers to these people as the “missionary party.” An example of this conflict came in May 1864, when King Kamehameha V devised a new constitution to replace one forced that had been forced upon the Hawaiians by the missionaries. Liliuokalani says of this time, “Let it be repeated: the promulgation of a new constitution, adapted to the needs of the times and the demands of the people, has been an indisputable prerogative of the Hawaiian monarchy.”
By 1881, a different king, Kalakaua, ruled at Honolulu, and Liliuokalani, Kalakaua’s sister, writes that that year “is an important page in Hawaiian history, because it shows how persistently, even at that date, the ‘missionary party’ was at work to undermine at every point the authority of the constitutional rulers of the Hawaiian people.”
Kalakaua’s coronation that year brought complaints from the “missionary party” about the costs of the ceremony. Liliuokalani feels that “It was wise and patriotic to spend money to awaken in the people a national pride.” With the grim wisdom born of unhappy hindsight, however, she adds that “Naturally, those among us who did not desire to have Hawaii remain a nation would look on an expenditure of this kind as worse than wasted.”
The “missionary party,” determined to secure Anglo-American hegemony in Hawaii, forced Kalakaua to sign a “Bayonet Constitution” that rendered the Hawaiian monarch little more than a figurehead. Liliuokalani even says that she was invited to conspire against her brother the king. With political instability spreading, a no-doubt-demoralized King Kalakaua departed on a foreign journey, leaving his sister Liliuokalani as regent.
The King died on the journey home, and Liliuokalani was crowned as Queen of Hawaii. She wanted Hawaiians to have a new constitution, and a new constitution that might have restored some of the historic rights and privileges of the Hawaiian monarchy seems to have been an island too far for the “missionary party.”
Liluokalani’s political feelings are clear. She feels that the reign of her brother Kalakaua was, “in a material sense, the golden age of Hawaiian history. The wealth and importance of the Islands enormously increased, and always as a direct consequence of the king’s acts.”
By contrast, the leaders of the “missionary party” come in for plenty of queenly scorn, as when Liliuokalani mentions that “to one of the retiring members [of the Hawaiian cabinet] the appellation 'kauka-kope-kala' subsequently adhered pretty tenaciously. I refrain from translating, as the title is not one of honour; but it still clings to the family as an heirloom.”
Not feeling bound by royal restraint, as the queen evidently did, I conducted a bit of research, and learned that kauka-kope-kala translates from the Hawaiian as “Doctor Money Shovel.” It certainly captures well the feelings of many indigenous Hawaiians regarding the acquisitive ways of some Anglo-Americans in the islands; and if the translation is helpful to you, then he mea iki (you’re welcome).
Events accelerated quickly. The overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy took place in 1893, and Liliuokalani was forced to abdicate. This political turmoil in Hawaii prompted differing responses from the U.S. presidential administrations of Benjamin Harrison (dismissive) and Grover Cleveland (sympathetic), though in neither case did a presidential response change the realities of the Hawaiian situation. An attempt to restore the monarchy resulted in the arrest of Liluokalani (who claimed that she had no knowledge of or involvement in the monarchist plot). Imprisoned and tried on charges of “misprision of treason,” Liliuokalani was convicted and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment at hard labour.
Fortunately, the hard-labour portion of the sentence was never carried out; instead, Her Majesty was kept under house arrest at Iolani Palace. I thought of Liluokalani’s ordeal when, on a recent visit to Hawaii, I walked by the palace in downtown Honolulu, imagining Her Majesty looking out the windows of the elegant building from which she had once reigned over the Kingdom of Hawaii. While imprisoned, she wrote music, including the classic song “Aloha Oe.” From her isolated position as a state prisoner (though she was permitted some retainers and visitors), she heard of the establishment, by the missionary party, of a new “Republic of Hawaii” (she always puts the name of the republic in quotation marks, or calls it a “so-called republic”).
Eventually, Liliuokalani was released on parole, and still later she was informed that her full civil rights had been restored! Yet in that connection, she asks a good question: “If I was deprived of my civil rights at the moment of my imprisonment, of what value was the signature procured to my supposed or alleged act of abdication? Was it legal, of binding force, or effective?” At this remove in time, the behaviour of those who oversaw and orchestrated Hawaii’s move from kingdom to republic, and then toward a new status as territory of the United States, seems shady at best.
Liliuokalani’s post-abdication life seems only to have reinforced her sense that she and her people had been treated cruelly and unjustly by citizens of a larger and more powerful nation. On an 1896 visit to the United States, she crossed the country from west to east by rail, and looked upon “thousands of acres of uncultivated, uninhabited, but rich and fertile lands, soil capable of producing anything which grows, plenty of water, floods of it running to waste, everything needed for pleasant towns and quiet homesteads, except population.” Observing the vast amount of available land within the limits of the contiguous U.S.A., Liliuokalani wonders why “this great and powerful nation must go across two thousand miles of sea, and take from the poor Hawaiians their little spots in the broad Pacific, must take our lands of Hawaii Nei, and extinguish the nationality of my poor people, many of whom have now not a foot of land which can be called their own.”
Writing for a U.S. readership that she knew would be strongly interested in the debate over annexation of Hawaii – it was big news in those days – Liliuokalani tries, in the conclusion of her book, to appeal to the self-interest of readers on the mainland, suggesting that people like the Anglo-American annexationists in Hawaii “are anything but ideal citizens for a democracy”, and that “This annexationist party might prove to be a dangerous accession even to American politics”, because its members, the queen feels, have had “the training of an autocratic life from earliest youth.”
Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen tells a difficult story from a turbulent time. We all know that many of the world’s developed nations, including the United States, could and did engage in imperialist policies in those times; recall President William McKinley’s 1903 declaration that the United States, having gained control of the Philippines during the Spanish-American War, would maintain that control, in order to "uplift and civilize and Christianize" the Philippines - even though the Philippines, named for King Philip of Spain, had been Catholic for 400 years! The campaign to move Hawaii from kingdom to republic to territory seems to follow in that sorry tradition. Liliuokalani’s book reminds us of a time when a singularly beautiful set of islands became the subject of some very ugly political machinations.
December 24, 2009
Required reading for visitors to the Hawaiian Islands, IMO. Written by Hawaii's last queen, a very eloquent, worldly, and loving Victorian woman. She speaks directly, and in a somewhat formal Victorian manner. She tells of how she was essentially framed by US advisers whom she trusted and who had profited from her and her country's generosity. She was arrested, imprisoned, and forced to abdicate. Her possessions were all ransacked and stolen. She bears no bitterness, only disbelief at the Christians who deposed her, questioning their "Christian" values.
The first few chapters on lineage were confusing to me (but there are charts in the back to help, if you wish to understand it). Bear with it or skim, till the plot kicks in. This might also be Victorian style, setting the scene.
Most interesting is the Queen's forgiving attitude, letting go of her mistreatment by the missionary party, letting "God be the judge." Even her reference to her childhood time in missionary school ("they must not have known we were growing children, because we were always hungry, and were only fed once a day") shows forgiveness on her part. It makes one wonder how the Islands would be today if President Cleveland's edict that Hawaii be self-governing had not been undermined by a greedy socio-political party. A fascinating history lesson.
The first few chapters on lineage were confusing to me (but there are charts in the back to help, if you wish to understand it). Bear with it or skim, till the plot kicks in. This might also be Victorian style, setting the scene.
Most interesting is the Queen's forgiving attitude, letting go of her mistreatment by the missionary party, letting "God be the judge." Even her reference to her childhood time in missionary school ("they must not have known we were growing children, because we were always hungry, and were only fed once a day") shows forgiveness on her part. It makes one wonder how the Islands would be today if President Cleveland's edict that Hawaii be self-governing had not been undermined by a greedy socio-political party. A fascinating history lesson.
abandoned
August 28, 2025I was pretty excited to read Liliuokalani's memoirs after reading Sarah Vowell's Unfamiliar Fishes, which details the history of Hawaii's annexation to the United States. Vowell consistently references Liliuokalani as a source, and I imagined her memoirs would be full of Hawaiian history and interesting anecdotes from her life. However - and this is my bad - I didn't take into account that Liliuokalani primarily wrote this for a contemporary audience as a plea for Hawaiian independence. Given that, this is really, really BORING, in a way that only Victorian-era writers can make something boring. I made it about 25% of the way through and then abandoned it.
In the part that I read, Liliuokalani spends most of her time referencing obscure parties that she went to, and then name-dropping every helpful family who attended or hosted her. This is obviously expedient politically, but she skips over the interesting parts of each story:
.... and then she doesn't describe the party at all! I've never mingled with a happy people in the festivities of a tropical night!! Come on. Can I get some descriptors here?
The writing is very Victorian. Liliuokalani was well-educated and knows who her audience is: the God-fearing Christian foreigners who will decide Hawaii's future far away. She's careful to adjust her tone and the content of her work to her reader. Of the previous religious practice of throwing rocks into a volcano to please the gods, the ostensibly Christian Liliuokalani writes:
She also throws some intense shade at the policymen and missionaries who talk out of both sides of their mouth about democracy and self-governance. The foreigners frequently attempt to undermine the lawful constitution because allowing the majority to actually, you know, VOTE, would send them right out of power. These moments are particularly great when she just says it like it is:
Unfortunately she then goes back into her really dry, 1870s gossip column mode, talking about who was where and how proper it was for her to take a trip around Kauai, etc, invariably leaving all the interesting bits out. So as a historical document read within context, I'm sure this is an invaluable resource, and Liliuokalani was clearly a very well-educated, well-spoken advocate for her country and her people. I was just looking for The Secret Diary of Liliuokalani, and unfortunately that's not what this is.
In the part that I read, Liliuokalani spends most of her time referencing obscure parties that she went to, and then name-dropping every helpful family who attended or hosted her. This is obviously expedient politically, but she skips over the interesting parts of each story:
Indeed, the entire grounds were given up to pleasure such as can only be fully imagined by those who have actually mingled with a happy people in the festivities of a tropical night.
.... and then she doesn't describe the party at all! I've never mingled with a happy people in the festivities of a tropical night!! Come on. Can I get some descriptors here?
The writing is very Victorian. Liliuokalani was well-educated and knows who her audience is: the God-fearing Christian foreigners who will decide Hawaii's future far away. She's careful to adjust her tone and the content of her work to her reader. Of the previous religious practice of throwing rocks into a volcano to please the gods, the ostensibly Christian Liliuokalani writes:
... it would be well to notice that this propitiation of the volcano's wrath is now but a harmless sport, not by any means an act of worship, very much like the custom of hurling old shoes at the bride's carriage, or sending off the newly wedded couple with showers of rice; usages which form a pleasant diversion in the most highly cultivated and educated communities.
She also throws some intense shade at the policymen and missionaries who talk out of both sides of their mouth about democracy and self-governance. The foreigners frequently attempt to undermine the lawful constitution because allowing the majority to actually, you know, VOTE, would send them right out of power. These moments are particularly great when she just says it like it is:
This is an important page in Hawaiian history, because it shows how persistently, even at that date, the "missionary party" was at work to undermine at every point the authority of the constitutional rulers of the Hawaiian people ... if my brother had indeed sought his own pleasure rather than the good of all residents under our flag, his family would be in their hereditary rights to this day. By his liberality to those of American birth ... [they], as soon as they had become rich and powerful, forgot his generosity, and plotted a subversion of his authority, and an overthrow of the constitution under which the kingdom had been happily governed for nearly a quarter of a century.
Unfortunately she then goes back into her really dry, 1870s gossip column mode, talking about who was where and how proper it was for her to take a trip around Kauai, etc, invariably leaving all the interesting bits out. So as a historical document read within context, I'm sure this is an invaluable resource, and Liliuokalani was clearly a very well-educated, well-spoken advocate for her country and her people. I was just looking for The Secret Diary of Liliuokalani, and unfortunately that's not what this is.
June 26, 2017
The government of the Sandwich Islands appears to have passed from the hands of the king into the hands of a military oligarchy that is more domineering than Kalakaua ever was. Before the recent revolt of the Europeans in Honolulu the press of the city was very plain-spoken. It printed unadorned truths about the king, and the latter made no effort to suppress such unpleasant utterances. Now, under the new régime, the newspapers are kept in check with military thoroughness. It seems incredible, but it is an actual fact, that not one of the Honolulu journals dared to reprint the comments of the American press on the so-called revolution, although such comment would have been very interesting reading to all Hawaiians. Even the reports of court proceedings are dry and mater-of-fact records, very different from the ordinary accounts. In a word, the freedom of the press of Honolulu is a myth under the reform party, and the [person] who looks for the facts in the Honolulu journals will not find them.Part of the reason why it took me so long to read this is that I had it hitched next to In the Eye of the Sun for some time. Another is that the style of prose really shows its 19th century composition period, which combined with nonfiction and politics makes for the sort of reading that had to be done during the morning pre-work coffee liminal zone, as my post-work evening sprawl would always reach for something a tad less weighty. Another is that one of my incentives for buying this book because of first cover appearances was the tourism entitlement so prevalent in the reviews of this work, a benefit guaranteed by the thieves and hostage takers that lived so long ago and are so prettily and politely described by these pages. If you're a US citizen and want more colonizer tripe à la Molokaʻi and various tour guides, just hop on a plane and write some of your own when you get there. No passport required.
-San Francisco Chronicle, Monday, Sept. 5, 1887
That Hawaii has the only royal palace on United States soil is a fact often pointed out to visitors by residents, conjuring up nostalgic images of kings, queens, and royal balls. It may be more accurate to inform people that Hawaii is the only state that was once a completely independent lineage of monarchs who resided in a royal palace that was seized and stripped by a small group of Americans with the assistance of the United States government.This isn't some cute and whimsically detailed narrative calculated to please the broadest white gaze possible. This is a legal plea that was shot down by money and piled up history such as Pearl Harbor, fifty states, and various other military and plain old aesthetic incentives. Considering that the occupying country sentenced a three-year-old daughter molester to little more than probation during the last ten years, it isn't a wonder that, more than a hundred years prior to this, Queen Liliuokalani was lied to, manipulated, sabotaged, held captive, and ignored from the time capitalism took a bite out of her country to the moment of her death. What is a wonder is what she was able to compose during this period: translation of ancient poetry, hundreds of songs often without sheet music, and this, a testament that is part prosecution, part genealogy, part civilization, part government, and all Hawaii.
It may be true that they really believed us unfit to be trusted to administer the growing wealth of the Islands in a safe and proper way. But if we manifested any incompetency, it was in not forseeing that they would be bound by no obligations, by honor, or by oath of allegiance, should an opportunity arise for seizing our country, and bringing it under the authority of the United States.
The substance of my crime was that I knew my people were conspiring to re-establish the constitutional government, to throw off the yoke of the stranger and oppressor;and I had not conveyed this knowledge to the persons I had never recognized except as unlawful usurpers of authority, and had not informed against my own nation and against their friends who were also my long-time friends.The fact that I don't believe in Queen Liliuokalani's speeches about noble sentiments and 15th century rigmarole of monarchs being imbued with divine powers doesn't mean I don't support her. The author's inherited ruling system of land apportion may have had its flaws, but when is someone going to come in and save the poor widdle white people of the USA from their backward and oppressive ways? I doubt the transition to Christianity was as welcome or nondestructive as she puts forth, but it was the missionary party that held the islands at warship point and forced their indigenous ruler to step down. The politeness with which she went forth and acted the perfect diplomat grew increasingly agonizing, as did the numbers of names and praises for even the ones that had had a hand in her destruction, but Queen Liliuokalani was desperate in a world that wanted to live in the pages of Pride and Prejudice, and politics does not tolerate a wit like Elizabeth Bennet. Each name was another feather in the cap of résumé that sought to earn its owner her constitutional powers back from the grasp of world powers that pride themselves on law and order, and the fact that all of these failed should tell you something about said law and order.
The only charge against me really was that of being a queen; and my case was judged by these, my adversaries, before I came into court.
[I]f I was deprived of my civil rights at the moment of my imprisonment, of what value was the signature procured to my supposed or alleged act of abdication? Was it legal, of binding force, or effective? This question I will leave for decision to all those learned in the law; they can draw their own conclusions[.]118 years after this book was published, I have scenes from Lilo and Stitch that were most likely excised for being 'politically charged' and various news articles that talk about a new judicial committees, for either the first or one of the few seriously taken times, being composed entirely of native Hawaiians, rather than those who called in US military resources while claiming themselves citizens. It's an old, old, old story, and the fact that 'no one' knows about it in the age of the Internet is because those in power find it more convenient it to do so. A surge of misguided and misinformed interest may come in the advent and wake of Moana, but that may only result in more abuse of animals, people, and countless civilizations. The only solution I can see is to piss off the right people in the right numbers in the right places. Knowledge is power, the truth hurts, and if you want to take down an enterprise by its own rules, all you need is a big enough audience.
Perhaps there is a kind of right, depending upon the precedents of all ages, and known as the "Right of Conquest," under which robbers and marauders may establish themselves in possession of whatsoever they are strong enough to ravish from their fellows. I will not pretend to decide how far civilization and Christian enlightenment have outlawed it.
[W]here corruption is practised there is no stability[.]
My actions were dictated by the sole aim of doing good to my beloved country, and of alleviating the positions and pains of those who unhappily and unwisely resorted to arms to regain an independence which they thought had been unjustly wrested from them.
As you deal with them, so I pray that Almighty God may deal with you in your hours of trial.
June 20, 2018
I've visited and loved the four major islands over the years, but I'm ashamed to say I didn't fully understand Hawaii's history. The last queen's firsthand written account of how the missionary oligarchy stole the islands from the Hawaiians is a real revelation. When we visit again this Fall, I'm sure I'll see this beautiful paradise with new eyes, and I'll NEVER look at a can of Dole pineapple the same way.
September 18, 2012
Amazing. The last third of the book is quite telling of the injustices suffered by the Hawaiian people from a few business men in the name of the United States. The acquisition of Hawaii by this country was unlawful, and suited the interest of a few wealthy people while crushing the rest of the population. It's been over a hundred years, and now we know this country has adapted these policies of promoting the interests of the the few at the costs of the many at home as well. We had no business overthrowing the Hawaiian Monarchy, and those people deserve more than a mere apology from the U.S.
July 18, 2020
I found this autobiography of the last reigning queen in Hawaii before the monarchy was dismantled by agents of the U.S. quite interesting. 3.5 stars
May 8, 2021
4.0
I hate that most of the reviews consider this a “must read before you travel to Hawaii”?? It’s a historical book, not a travel guide.
I liked this memoir a lot, more often than not. The first half of the book drags a lot, I thought that it would be about the history of Hawaii’s monarchy, but it was more about her life as a child to just before her reign and a lot of travelling with people I don’t really care for? I understand she was trying to encapsulate her story as much as possible... but this was advertised as Hawaii’s story; it should really be known as Liliuokalani’s story.
The second half was amazing and incredibly educational, it details the coup and Liliuokalani’s imprisonment and possible execution to commenting on America’s coloniser’s mindset and her anger at having lost her country and people. She was angry when the plantation farmers tried to call themselves Hawaiians when they were staging a coup against her, and she was angry at America’s faux Christian beliefs and honestly it was amazing. I could never imagine what having to live through your country being colonised would be like, and I’m glad that this memoir immortalises that feeling with the highest power. It’s sad to see that Hawaii has been given to its colonisers and those people struggle to give decent respect to its Native people, when the Natives have been nothing but welcoming and hospitable - and this memoir really captures that sadness.
Anyways, I listened to Aloha Oe again and cried. Then I remembered the parallel between Nani and Lilo and felt even more sad. I can’t believe annexation between Native Hawaiian families still happen to this day by a too powerful American government. It’s been too long, just give Hawaiians their autonomy back and stop thinking of this important piece of Hawaiian history as a travel guide, it’s not essential reading for travel, it’s essential reading full stop.
I hate that most of the reviews consider this a “must read before you travel to Hawaii”?? It’s a historical book, not a travel guide.
I liked this memoir a lot, more often than not. The first half of the book drags a lot, I thought that it would be about the history of Hawaii’s monarchy, but it was more about her life as a child to just before her reign and a lot of travelling with people I don’t really care for? I understand she was trying to encapsulate her story as much as possible... but this was advertised as Hawaii’s story; it should really be known as Liliuokalani’s story.
The second half was amazing and incredibly educational, it details the coup and Liliuokalani’s imprisonment and possible execution to commenting on America’s coloniser’s mindset and her anger at having lost her country and people. She was angry when the plantation farmers tried to call themselves Hawaiians when they were staging a coup against her, and she was angry at America’s faux Christian beliefs and honestly it was amazing. I could never imagine what having to live through your country being colonised would be like, and I’m glad that this memoir immortalises that feeling with the highest power. It’s sad to see that Hawaii has been given to its colonisers and those people struggle to give decent respect to its Native people, when the Natives have been nothing but welcoming and hospitable - and this memoir really captures that sadness.
Anyways, I listened to Aloha Oe again and cried. Then I remembered the parallel between Nani and Lilo and felt even more sad. I can’t believe annexation between Native Hawaiian families still happen to this day by a too powerful American government. It’s been too long, just give Hawaiians their autonomy back and stop thinking of this important piece of Hawaiian history as a travel guide, it’s not essential reading for travel, it’s essential reading full stop.
June 11, 2013
This book can be clearly divided into two parts: from Liliuokalani's childhood to Queen Victoria's Jubilee, and from then until the annexation of Hawai'i.
The first part of the book is woefully lacking in detail. Liliuokalani declines to describe Hawai'ian food, customs, or scenery (beyond one memorable description of lava). I read every word and yet came away without a fuller understanding of Hawai'ian culture or customs. Instead, Liliuokalani praises her friends and the "delightful" parties they threw for her. She speaks ill of none except Queen Emma, and I found Queen Emma's cattiness refreshing amid a suffocating parade of hospitable luaus. Liliuokalani is too polite and offers too few details; she succeeds in making an exciting life into a boring memoir.
The second half of the book is of special interest to anyone interested in colonization. Queen Liliuokalani observed firsthand how a group of merchants took over the Hawai'ian Islands for the United States by manipulating popular opinion through the newspapers. The injustice done to the Hawai'ian monarchy reminds me of that done to the Native Americans on the continent. C
As someone with a lifelong interest in Hawai'iana, I was shocked at how little I enjoyed this book. Sadly, I must recommend that you read a few wikipedia articles and pass on this memoir.
The first part of the book is woefully lacking in detail. Liliuokalani declines to describe Hawai'ian food, customs, or scenery (beyond one memorable description of lava). I read every word and yet came away without a fuller understanding of Hawai'ian culture or customs. Instead, Liliuokalani praises her friends and the "delightful" parties they threw for her. She speaks ill of none except Queen Emma, and I found Queen Emma's cattiness refreshing amid a suffocating parade of hospitable luaus. Liliuokalani is too polite and offers too few details; she succeeds in making an exciting life into a boring memoir.
The second half of the book is of special interest to anyone interested in colonization. Queen Liliuokalani observed firsthand how a group of merchants took over the Hawai'ian Islands for the United States by manipulating popular opinion through the newspapers. The injustice done to the Hawai'ian monarchy reminds me of that done to the Native Americans on the continent. C
As someone with a lifelong interest in Hawai'iana, I was shocked at how little I enjoyed this book. Sadly, I must recommend that you read a few wikipedia articles and pass on this memoir.
March 19, 2009
This book has touched me in many ways. Being of Hawaiian ancestery and reading this book made me really re-think the way I thought about my culture and my people. Knowing all that has happend in my people's history is unbelievable. I encourage anyone of hawaiian descent or anyone who is just amazed by hawaiian history to read this book.
May 17, 2022
Beautifully read by Emily Woo Zeller.
https://www.afar.com/magazine/underst...
https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/09/pet...
Popsugar 2022: Book set during Victorian times
https://www.afar.com/magazine/underst...
https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/09/pet...
Popsugar 2022: Book set during Victorian times
June 13, 2024
I learned so many things. Growing up in Hawaii, I learned about the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarch and Queen Liliuokalani's days imprisoned in her palace, but I didn't learn the who. I knew about Dole, but I hadn't fully realized that a lot of other familiar names (Judd, Thurston, Castle) were the very people who led the overthrow. Queen Liliuokalani named names. This is her memoir, her telling of the events, and she wrote this with conviction.
I'd skip the audiobook though. I really like Emily Woo Zeller generally--I've listened to a few of her books--but her pronunciation of some of the Hawaiian words really took me out of the story, and I wish, especially for this topic, they found someone who spoke Hawaiian to narrate.
I'd skip the audiobook though. I really like Emily Woo Zeller generally--I've listened to a few of her books--but her pronunciation of some of the Hawaiian words really took me out of the story, and I wish, especially for this topic, they found someone who spoke Hawaiian to narrate.
January 13, 2022
Négyszázhetvennégy oldalas védőbeszéd az Egyesült Államok népéhez, Hawaii önállóságáért, 1898-ból. Írta és előadja: Hawaii utolsó királynője, akit törvénytelen és finoman szólva aljas eszközökkel mondattak le, hogy a hazáját annektálni lehessen.
Ezt az olvasást is (részben) a Hyperionnak köszönhetem, amelynek egyik fejezetében pontosan ezt az annektálást játsszák le újra. Erről a bejegyzés alján olvashattok, de előre szólok, hogy nagyon fogok spoilerezni. Természetesen jelölöm, hogy hol.
Részletek a blogon:
https://gyujtogeto-alkoto.blog.hu/202...
Ezt az olvasást is (részben) a Hyperionnak köszönhetem, amelynek egyik fejezetében pontosan ezt az annektálást játsszák le újra. Erről a bejegyzés alján olvashattok, de előre szólok, hogy nagyon fogok spoilerezni. Természetesen jelölöm, hogy hol.
Részletek a blogon:
https://gyujtogeto-alkoto.blog.hu/202...
February 11, 2025
This is a remarkable primary source that belongs in curriculum. It successfully covers a wide scope of Hawaiian political and cultural history but through prose that is lined with intriguing family drama, personal and humorous anecdotes, and very accessible language. Her love was so palpable throughout.
A deeply moving autobiographical account of Queen Lili’oukalani’s rise and fall from sovereign power. Highly recommend for anyone wanting to read more history
A deeply moving autobiographical account of Queen Lili’oukalani’s rise and fall from sovereign power. Highly recommend for anyone wanting to read more history
November 11, 2015
Well.... How to review this book?
I read it out loud to my students at our Hawaiian immersion school, 7th to 12th graders, in preparation for our annual Eo E Liliu song competition. This year for the first time our students wrote original compositions honoring the last queen of Hawaii. Usually we just learn songs that she wrote or that were written in her honor like Kaulana Na Pua, Ke Ai Na Alii, Anapau etc etc et. Her songs are legion.
Queen Liliuokalani sits so prettily in her black and white photographic portraits-- pillowed skirts in crisp-looking satin, ruffled sleeves, coiffed hair in the latest Victorian fashion... She looks so maternal and long-suffering. In the popular Hawaiian imagination, she is the royal martyr to the greed and evil of American businessmen who overthrew her and ultimately handed Hawaii over to be an American territory. She is the noble symbol of the Hawaiian monarchy: dignified, gentle, creative...
I made the mistake of not finishing the book before jumping right in with students (look, who has enough prep time for that. I figured we'd learn together.) We used general guiding questions to respond to each section we read: identify the themes, summarize what happens explicitly in the text, draw inferences from the text, and identify the author's hand-- their intent, their audience,their rhetorical skills. And since we were all getting through it together, it wasn't just my students who were confused and derailed by this book. I was not prepared to deal with the real Liliuokalani, in her own words.
Turns out, if you want to continue believing that Liliuokalani was a selfless protector of her people, a wise and martyred guardian of her race, you probably shouldn't read this book. She details, yes her mookuauhau, her royal Hawaiian lineage that entitles her to rule, and s few quaint Hawaiian customs of yore, but the overwhelming impression we were left with was of a feuding entitled family, hyper aware of preserving appearances, impressing high society, and maintaining their social position. It was not the egalitarian book we were looking for. She rides in a rickshaw pulled by Natives, and relishes when they get stuck in mud. It's hard to read. It's cringe-worthy.
And it's actually hard to read. She needed an editor badly, but this raw meandering diary, sometimes attuned to Hawaiian readers but mostly to English and American sympathizers, meanders pointlessly through time and space, little grudges and anecdotes achromatically jumbled into chapters with no guiding hand.
I'm sad, so sad to read this book. I'm sad that as my students and I read it, we lost some of our idealism and love towards our queen. Yes, we saw her as more human... But we don't want humanized royalty. We want royalty that can save us, that we can hold up as a banner and a beacon of our success and worthiness,
This book doesn't give us that.
With my high schoolers, we need to read this book with Sarah Vowell's Unfamiliar Fishes, and Mai Paa I Ka Leo to get a multi-dimensional look at what those last years of the monarchy were like in Hawaii.
I read it out loud to my students at our Hawaiian immersion school, 7th to 12th graders, in preparation for our annual Eo E Liliu song competition. This year for the first time our students wrote original compositions honoring the last queen of Hawaii. Usually we just learn songs that she wrote or that were written in her honor like Kaulana Na Pua, Ke Ai Na Alii, Anapau etc etc et. Her songs are legion.
Queen Liliuokalani sits so prettily in her black and white photographic portraits-- pillowed skirts in crisp-looking satin, ruffled sleeves, coiffed hair in the latest Victorian fashion... She looks so maternal and long-suffering. In the popular Hawaiian imagination, she is the royal martyr to the greed and evil of American businessmen who overthrew her and ultimately handed Hawaii over to be an American territory. She is the noble symbol of the Hawaiian monarchy: dignified, gentle, creative...
I made the mistake of not finishing the book before jumping right in with students (look, who has enough prep time for that. I figured we'd learn together.) We used general guiding questions to respond to each section we read: identify the themes, summarize what happens explicitly in the text, draw inferences from the text, and identify the author's hand-- their intent, their audience,their rhetorical skills. And since we were all getting through it together, it wasn't just my students who were confused and derailed by this book. I was not prepared to deal with the real Liliuokalani, in her own words.
Turns out, if you want to continue believing that Liliuokalani was a selfless protector of her people, a wise and martyred guardian of her race, you probably shouldn't read this book. She details, yes her mookuauhau, her royal Hawaiian lineage that entitles her to rule, and s few quaint Hawaiian customs of yore, but the overwhelming impression we were left with was of a feuding entitled family, hyper aware of preserving appearances, impressing high society, and maintaining their social position. It was not the egalitarian book we were looking for. She rides in a rickshaw pulled by Natives, and relishes when they get stuck in mud. It's hard to read. It's cringe-worthy.
And it's actually hard to read. She needed an editor badly, but this raw meandering diary, sometimes attuned to Hawaiian readers but mostly to English and American sympathizers, meanders pointlessly through time and space, little grudges and anecdotes achromatically jumbled into chapters with no guiding hand.
I'm sad, so sad to read this book. I'm sad that as my students and I read it, we lost some of our idealism and love towards our queen. Yes, we saw her as more human... But we don't want humanized royalty. We want royalty that can save us, that we can hold up as a banner and a beacon of our success and worthiness,
This book doesn't give us that.
With my high schoolers, we need to read this book with Sarah Vowell's Unfamiliar Fishes, and Mai Paa I Ka Leo to get a multi-dimensional look at what those last years of the monarchy were like in Hawaii.
February 9, 2019
280815: i read this many years ago- decades actually. significant for the more recent kamaaina renaissance, the recovery of hawai'ian pride. surprised that I had not put this on here, though through family history know most of the appropriation of the islands, the unavoidable american annexation- look on any globe and you will note Honolulu is more or less the exact centre of the northern pacific, so useful to Europeans, to Americans, to whaling ships of moby dick era, to nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers... not a surprise local land, people, resources, were all incorporately absorbed. at about the time this was written, it was suggested with great certainty that the hawai'ians as a people, as a 'race', were destined to die out as superior 'races' came to take over the islands... this did not happen, exactly, though as with natives and First Nations of North America, there was no resistance to European diseases and this led to a great dying... I am only half hawai'ian, but this is my spiritual home, this is family history, this book not the best, but then books are books...
April 13, 2022
Picked up and read on Maui while grappling with the ethics of enjoying my honeymoon on stolen land (though, of course, I’ve spent most days of my life on stolen land). This is an important read because it puts the annexation of Hawaii in context. Even by the abysmal ethical standards of the US empire in the late 19th century the annexation was illegal - President Cleveland admitted so himself. The book feels like a demonstration of the humanity of Native Hawaiians to combat the propaganda (which persists to this day) painting them as uncivilized and unorganized. In careful prose, Liliuokalani goes into great detail to ensure the American populace understands that Hawaii was a) a fully functional country with executive, legislative, and judicial branches b) participating in the world economy c) allied with nations in Asia and Europe and d) coerced at gunpoint to forfeit rights to their land. As I’ve said in many reviews, I should have learned about this in primary school.
May 1, 2014
After a wonderful trip to the Big Island in March I was ready to read about Hawaiian history. I read Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell. This inspired me to learn more. I wanted to read Queen Liliuokalani's memoir.
This was not an easy read. It was written in the late 1890s soon after the Hawaiian Islands was annexed by the United States . Liliuokalani was the last Hawaiian monarch who ruled islands. She thought this annexation unjust
bullying from the American business men whose missionary fathers and grandfathers were welcomed by the Hawaiians.
Liliuokalani was a fascinating articulate and talented woman. She traveled through the United States, many parts of Europe and met many notable people including Queen Victoria. She also considered herself to be privileged royalty and very capable of governing the islands . A informative first hand book of 19th century Hawaii.
This was not an easy read. It was written in the late 1890s soon after the Hawaiian Islands was annexed by the United States . Liliuokalani was the last Hawaiian monarch who ruled islands. She thought this annexation unjust
bullying from the American business men whose missionary fathers and grandfathers were welcomed by the Hawaiians.
Liliuokalani was a fascinating articulate and talented woman. She traveled through the United States, many parts of Europe and met many notable people including Queen Victoria. She also considered herself to be privileged royalty and very capable of governing the islands . A informative first hand book of 19th century Hawaii.
October 31, 2024
Imagine moving to a country, inviting the queen of that country over for dinner, and then overthrowing the government of that country to annex it for your country over 2,500 miles away. The audacity of white men.
Read
February 7, 2025No rating. So important to read the history of Indigenous lands 🫶🏻 Liliuokalani was incredible.
March 25, 2025
A history of the annexation of Hawaii from the deposed queen herself. It's a very interesting read, but does have many of the turn of the century autobiography tropes. A lot of focus on listing who was at which party or where the queen stayed on her travels.
September 29, 2025
Definitely not an easy book to read aloud. I feel like the Hawaiian could have offered some more resistance to US takeover than they did. It’s not like the US excels at jungle warfare.
The book is less about Hawaii’s and almost entirely about Liliuokalani’s as a monarch. It’s honestly a pretty boring read where she drones on and on about menial Victorian monarch things.
The book is less about Hawaii’s and almost entirely about Liliuokalani’s as a monarch. It’s honestly a pretty boring read where she drones on and on about menial Victorian monarch things.
Read
September 22, 2025man.
August 23, 2024
With so few written sources from native Hawaiians of this time, this document will always be worth reading. The author reveals herself to be a relentless champion of Hawaiian sovereignty. Her description of a trip to England at the height of Victoria’s reign is fascinating.
July 5, 2020
I heard about Queen Lili'uokalani when I was about four or five years old, from my mother who played the ukulele. (When I say "heard about," I basically learned how to pronounce her exotic name and ran around the house for a few days saying, "Lee-lee-oo-oh-kaLAAAAAHnee!" over and over again until my poor mother probably went into the ironing room and shut herself in with her little instrument to drown me out. And it wasn't until I read this memoir that I pieced together that the queen herself wrote many of the ukulele songs my mother liked to play!
I had also heard of the "Hawaii for Hawaiians" movement, but not really grasped all of the history behind it. Basically, I was not all that familiar with Hawaii's history, beyond that she was the last monarch, and the annexing of Hawaii to the US was very controversial. I simply hadn't studied it.
Queen Lili'uokalani was highly educated (her prose reads like Louisa May Alcott), and well-traveled. (She attended Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in England, among other noteworthy trips and visits.) In moving fashion, she details the history of the islands' monarchs and her—and their—love for the native land and its original population. This book is an eye-opening, eyewitness account to the way Hawaii was annexed, and it is not a pretty tale. In back-stabbing, evil maneuvers first by the "missionaries," to the ultimate halls of Congress, this story left me sad, yet better informed.
I had also heard of the "Hawaii for Hawaiians" movement, but not really grasped all of the history behind it. Basically, I was not all that familiar with Hawaii's history, beyond that she was the last monarch, and the annexing of Hawaii to the US was very controversial. I simply hadn't studied it.
Queen Lili'uokalani was highly educated (her prose reads like Louisa May Alcott), and well-traveled. (She attended Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in England, among other noteworthy trips and visits.) In moving fashion, she details the history of the islands' monarchs and her—and their—love for the native land and its original population. This book is an eye-opening, eyewitness account to the way Hawaii was annexed, and it is not a pretty tale. In back-stabbing, evil maneuvers first by the "missionaries," to the ultimate halls of Congress, this story left me sad, yet better informed.
May 31, 2018
I am having a hard time writing this review. Instead of sharing my thoughts and impressions of the book itself, I am holding back a raging, unhinged tirade about the injustice that is Hawaiian history after the arrival of the American missionaries. Honestly, at times I had to put the book down because the sheer criminality of what happened is so blatant (you would think I would be inured given the near entirety of US foreign policy, but no). The only comparator that comes to mind is the occupation of Tibet by China - also ignored by most of the world.
Lili'uokalani provides a detailed description of late 1800s Hawaiian history in the lead-up to her forced abdication, her imprisonment, as well as her efforts to rectify the situation. Lili'uokalani's and the Hawaiians' patience with the missionaries (and other American businessmen) is as staggering as many find the Dalai Lama's equanimity toward the Chinese. However, the Hawaiians were not foolish: they tried to negotiate because armed resistance to an enormous military power would have ended in a bloodbath.
Recommended for anyone intending to visit Hawai'i. Also recommended for anyone researching the hypocrisy of missionaries. Warning: will put you off buying any Dole food.
Lili'uokalani provides a detailed description of late 1800s Hawaiian history in the lead-up to her forced abdication, her imprisonment, as well as her efforts to rectify the situation. Lili'uokalani's and the Hawaiians' patience with the missionaries (and other American businessmen) is as staggering as many find the Dalai Lama's equanimity toward the Chinese. However, the Hawaiians were not foolish: they tried to negotiate because armed resistance to an enormous military power would have ended in a bloodbath.
Recommended for anyone intending to visit Hawai'i. Also recommended for anyone researching the hypocrisy of missionaries. Warning: will put you off buying any Dole food.
October 2, 2023
More concerned with endlessly recounting etiquette than relevant history, this book denigrates pre-Christian Hawaiian culture as primitive and uncivilized. If this was supposed to be a call for international justice, no wonder it went unanswered.
January 18, 2021
This is mostly a memoir and partly a travelogue by Liliuokalani, Hawaii's last independent sovereign. It's written in formal Victorian English, which can be hard to follow, but I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller. Zeller was the perfect narrator for this book--her tone really brought out the story and the emotion in the book. I could actually hear her smiling when Liliuokalani was recounting joyful experiences, and she brought just the right amount of sarcasm to the pointed passages.
It was actually pretty stressful to listen to this account of rich white oligarchs overthrowing a sovereign constitutional government with the help of a credulous press that repeated whatever the oligarchs said without investigating the truth. You know, on account of literally the same thing happening in the United States right now (January 2021). Liliuokalani spends a significant portion of the book attempting to correct the record and defend her country and her countrymen. She names names and she reads some people for filth, in her proper, polite, Victorian way. I hate how she has to defend her people by holding them to white colonizer standards, and I'm sad that she was never able to restore her country to the Hawaiian people. (And I realize how hollow that sounds, since I'm a white person living on Native land.)
Since the events in the book all happened during Liliuokalani's lifetime, I'm left wanting to learn more about Hawaii's precolonial history as well as its history after her reign. I have one more book on Hawaii from the library already, and I'm working on finding more.
It was actually pretty stressful to listen to this account of rich white oligarchs overthrowing a sovereign constitutional government with the help of a credulous press that repeated whatever the oligarchs said without investigating the truth. You know, on account of literally the same thing happening in the United States right now (January 2021). Liliuokalani spends a significant portion of the book attempting to correct the record and defend her country and her countrymen. She names names and she reads some people for filth, in her proper, polite, Victorian way. I hate how she has to defend her people by holding them to white colonizer standards, and I'm sad that she was never able to restore her country to the Hawaiian people. (And I realize how hollow that sounds, since I'm a white person living on Native land.)
Since the events in the book all happened during Liliuokalani's lifetime, I'm left wanting to learn more about Hawaii's precolonial history as well as its history after her reign. I have one more book on Hawaii from the library already, and I'm working on finding more.
September 3, 2020
“Hawaii’s Story” es un libro interesante que cuenta la historia de la monarquia de Hawaii hasta que se vuelve un estado de Estado Unidos. Sin duda es un libro que me pareció interesante simplemente por el hecho de no tener idea de la historia de Hawaii, de su cultura, tradiciones y sobre todo la monarquia tan importante que tenían.
Sin embargo, es un libro muy difícil de leer porque no es una novela que te cautiva y no es una autobiografía que está escrita para entretener al lector. La reina Liliuokalani cuenta su historia como fue, sin resaltar emociones o pensamientos propios. Es un libro de hechos que puede llegar a aburrirte porque puede sentirse como una tarea más que un gusto.
Sé que parecería por lo que he escrito que no deberías de leerlo pero si eres una persona que le interesa la historia creo que es un súper libro para leer, siempre y cuando sepas que no es un libro para picarte sino para educarte.
Sin embargo, es un libro muy difícil de leer porque no es una novela que te cautiva y no es una autobiografía que está escrita para entretener al lector. La reina Liliuokalani cuenta su historia como fue, sin resaltar emociones o pensamientos propios. Es un libro de hechos que puede llegar a aburrirte porque puede sentirse como una tarea más que un gusto.
Sé que parecería por lo que he escrito que no deberías de leerlo pero si eres una persona que le interesa la historia creo que es un súper libro para leer, siempre y cuando sepas que no es un libro para picarte sino para educarte.
August 2, 2021
To go into this book thinking it is a "travel guide" or that it will go into detail of Hawaii's culture is extremely ignorant. Shame on those who rated this book low because it didn't "explain Hawaii's culture/food" as they thought it would.
That being said I 100% agree that this needs to be a mandatory read before anyone goes to the islands.
This book is a plea for Hawaii to the United States and those who will listen that Hawaii and it's monarchy were overthrown and forced into annexation, due to money and land grabbing merchants, written by their last Queen.
As a memoir it drones on a bit as there are a multitude of names and dates, events and events described. But as a plea, it lights a fire under me. Though the writing is that of the era, very elegant and astute, I feel the anger and the heartbreak of events and their results there after.
Elevate Hawaiian voices and issues.
That being said I 100% agree that this needs to be a mandatory read before anyone goes to the islands.
This book is a plea for Hawaii to the United States and those who will listen that Hawaii and it's monarchy were overthrown and forced into annexation, due to money and land grabbing merchants, written by their last Queen.
As a memoir it drones on a bit as there are a multitude of names and dates, events and events described. But as a plea, it lights a fire under me. Though the writing is that of the era, very elegant and astute, I feel the anger and the heartbreak of events and their results there after.
Elevate Hawaiian voices and issues.
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