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Tin Roofs & Palm Trees: A Report on the New South Seas
Second Printing. 1978 University of Washington Press hardcover. Robert Trumbull (The The Courageous Struggle of Three Naval Airmen Against the Sea). A composite portrait of the emerging South Pacific island states and territories traces the history of each major island and its future prospects.
- GenresTravel
302 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1977
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September 2, 2018
South Seas conditions forty years ago
Robert Trumbull had a distinguished career as a correspondent for the New York Times in Asia and the Pacific, starting during WW II. I remember reading his articles for a high school ‘government’ class. He died in 1992. I first read this book back in 1979 and was impressed by both its depth and its even-handedness. Over the years, I’ve read many another book on the nations and peoples of the Pacific region, but never come across a better one. Recently I re-read it. Of course, things have changed. All the island groups of any size, those on the verge of independence in the mid-1970s, have long since obtained their freedom and joined the UN. Nauru’s mismanagement and the end of phosphate mining have terminated that little island’s boom prematurely. The French still mine New Caledonia, but have stopped nuclear testing in Polynesia. Tourism has reached ever larger dimensions. There have been coups in Fiji and the decline in numbers of the Indian population there. Micronesia, particularly Palau, has undergone considerable turmoil, fighting has occurred in the Solomons and on Bougainville, part of Papua New Guinea. Population has increased as has obesity. And finally, climate change threatens to inundate many of the low-lying atolls, a trend not even mentioned back in Trumbull’s day.
Still, for an in-depth look at the islands, particularly their politics and the latter-day colonial rule, I think this is still one of the best general books available, though of course the politics of that time are mostly passé today. The early post-independence politics of the South Pacific as a whole are admirably covered, if that’s what you are looking for. Perhaps Trumbull was a little optimistic, but I think his work has stood the test of time. It’s journalism, not academic, but romantic exotica is totally absent. There are historical and cultural notes as well as interesting odds and ends---the first Fijian-owned shop in downtown Suva opened in 1972, a first-hand description of several US Marine landings in Kiribati and the Marianas, the origin of the name Kapingamarangi. If you are interested in such topics, this could be your book.
Robert Trumbull had a distinguished career as a correspondent for the New York Times in Asia and the Pacific, starting during WW II. I remember reading his articles for a high school ‘government’ class. He died in 1992. I first read this book back in 1979 and was impressed by both its depth and its even-handedness. Over the years, I’ve read many another book on the nations and peoples of the Pacific region, but never come across a better one. Recently I re-read it. Of course, things have changed. All the island groups of any size, those on the verge of independence in the mid-1970s, have long since obtained their freedom and joined the UN. Nauru’s mismanagement and the end of phosphate mining have terminated that little island’s boom prematurely. The French still mine New Caledonia, but have stopped nuclear testing in Polynesia. Tourism has reached ever larger dimensions. There have been coups in Fiji and the decline in numbers of the Indian population there. Micronesia, particularly Palau, has undergone considerable turmoil, fighting has occurred in the Solomons and on Bougainville, part of Papua New Guinea. Population has increased as has obesity. And finally, climate change threatens to inundate many of the low-lying atolls, a trend not even mentioned back in Trumbull’s day.
Still, for an in-depth look at the islands, particularly their politics and the latter-day colonial rule, I think this is still one of the best general books available, though of course the politics of that time are mostly passé today. The early post-independence politics of the South Pacific as a whole are admirably covered, if that’s what you are looking for. Perhaps Trumbull was a little optimistic, but I think his work has stood the test of time. It’s journalism, not academic, but romantic exotica is totally absent. There are historical and cultural notes as well as interesting odds and ends---the first Fijian-owned shop in downtown Suva opened in 1972, a first-hand description of several US Marine landings in Kiribati and the Marianas, the origin of the name Kapingamarangi. If you are interested in such topics, this could be your book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review