“Hezel writes clearly and with erudition and commands an impressive body of information. His book is a tour de force.... Not only will it be read eagerly by Pacific scholars, but it should find a wide audience among well-educated Micronesians hungry for greater understanding of how their islands have become ensnared in world geopolitics.” ―Ethnohistory
Together with Strangers in Their Own Land: A Century of Colonial Rule in the Caroline and Marshall Islands, these two texts represent the only major survey history of the former Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands: the present-day Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Republic of Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, and Republic of the Marshall Islands. The first volume covers the pre-colonial era, and the second volume covers the region's colonization by Spain, Germany, Japan, and the United States.