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Maui: A History
A History reveals all the major events and personages in the island's saga--Polynesian settlement, pre-contact life, European discovery, whaling, the coming of American missionaries, the development of a sugar plantation economy, the arrival of Asian immigrants to work the fields, and Camp Maui/World War II. History makers the ruthless chief Kahekili; the French explorer La Pérouse; the powerful ruling queen Ka'ahumanu; Kamehameha III--Hawai'i's longest reigning monarch; missionaries Dwight Baldwin and William Richards; and sugar baron Claus Spreckels.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
208 pages, Paperback
Published August 31, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 7, 2020
Found this book at a yardsale for a buck! Not exactly the most exciting read but since I'm staying on Maui it seemed a good fit. The chapters are short but cover a lot and have many great anecdotes.
I don't know if I would have made it through the whole book if I didn't live here but I did and here are some notes from the chapters:
Ch 1
When Captain James Cook first saw it he called it cape foul weather
When he came upon the islands of Hawaii he called them the sandwich islands in honor of Earl of sandwich.
His name for it did not stick and the Polynesian name of Maui, which he speed Mowee
It is widely believed that the name comes from either the Polynesian demigod or an actual war hero or discoverer by that name.
Maui was a very tricky demigod and earned the nickname Maui of a thousand tricks
He's credited with redesigning the first man
He's supposedly captured the sun in a net in the creator of Haleakala
He wove the net from his sisters pubic hair
He was ultimately killed by being crushed between Hina's legs
Maui is made of two volcanoes.
Maui was still growing when Jesus and Muhammad arrived.
The Polynesians discover Hawaii
Ceiling canoes were sometimes over 100 ft long
starting around 1200 or 1, 300 ADthe Hawaiians became isolated from other lands for about 500 years
Umi a liloa ruled Hawaii for a while
Pi'ilani give his daughter a marriage to Umi. Her name was Pi'ikea. This kept piece between the two kingdoms until Pi'ilani died.
The sons of Pi'ilani
The two sons fought and one ran over to Hana and fell in love with the daughter of the chief of Hana. She was already promised to the older son. The younger brother (Kiha) how to child with the girl and went to the big island and was protected by Umi. A vicious word broke out between Umi and the older brother (Lono).
Lono died of fright and Maui was split between The chief of Hawaii and Umi who work together very well for a very long time.
Ch2
A lot of war
Ch 3
Cook arrives
When he sees the island people start coming out in boats to trade
His rules for trading were no private trades, no showing guns, no sleeping with women (as might transmit disease). The rules were all broken except the one about guns.
After cooks men hooked up with the women around they were seen as less than divine.
The king's love Cook and he stays for the winter before leaving.
The leaves but the ship breaks so they have to come back.
They get a less than warm welcome from the common folks.
One of their smaller boats is stolen.
Cook tries to kidnap a chief to get it back.
He is killed by a mob on the way back to the boat.
Eventually the new captain makes peace and gets the remains hands/feet in jars and scalped skull back to do a proper burial.
Trading continues and they finish repairing ships before leaving.
Ch 4
The Olowalu Massacre was terrible
Don't duck with Kamehameha. It was hell of a war.
Ch 5
Galaup was a frenchman and the first to land on Maui.
Everything was quite peaceful and they had good trades.
However, he was eventually with his two ships in a hurricane. Luckily he sent back journals earlier.
This guy George Vancouver tried very hard to bring peace to the hawaiian islands and did a lot of good in making relations with all the chiefs.
Ch 6
The women take over and regain some rights.
The Christians managed to take over.
Ch 7
During the middle part of the 19th century Lahaina became the whaling capital of the world.
The sailors really liked to get drunk here and that became a problem because they would start trouble.
The captains of the ships wanted the city to stop selling alcohol.
Ohana became the center of education in the Hawaiian kingdom. They required all persons under 26 who wished to marry to prove their ability to read and write. this, coupled with strict laws prohibiting sex outside of marriage, led to remarkable level of literacy.
In 1846 there were almost 600 oil ships reaching Hawaiian ports. In the late 50s this started to decline.
Ch 8
Maui headwater and so they grow sugar. They grow sugar so they work able to get more water.
HP Baldwin was a badass. he lost his arm in a sugar plantation and then immediately started learning to use his left arm. He swang across a huge ditch to show his workers it was safe for many dasy using his left hand.
Ch 9
Plantations loved Hawaiian workers. They could not get enough and so more Asians were brought in. By the mid 1900s plantation owners controlled just about everything and had big influence in the government.
Ch 10
Even after world war 1 Maui was still relatively unknown and not often visited by tourists.
after Pearl harbor was bombed it was expected that Maui would be invaded and it was fortified.
Ch 11
In the '60s hippies came to Maui and people assumed they were the cause of all kinds of diseases. But it turned out not to be true.
Lahaina was intentionally pegged to be a big tourist destination and regulated to become such.
Ch 12
since the year 2000 Maui has been doing great. They have embraced tourism but put a lot of restrictions in place to protect the environment and culture. things still hang in the balance as more people come in and businesses by and sell other businesses.
I don't know if I would have made it through the whole book if I didn't live here but I did and here are some notes from the chapters:
Ch 1
When Captain James Cook first saw it he called it cape foul weather
When he came upon the islands of Hawaii he called them the sandwich islands in honor of Earl of sandwich.
His name for it did not stick and the Polynesian name of Maui, which he speed Mowee
It is widely believed that the name comes from either the Polynesian demigod or an actual war hero or discoverer by that name.
Maui was a very tricky demigod and earned the nickname Maui of a thousand tricks
He's credited with redesigning the first man
He's supposedly captured the sun in a net in the creator of Haleakala
He wove the net from his sisters pubic hair
He was ultimately killed by being crushed between Hina's legs
Maui is made of two volcanoes.
Maui was still growing when Jesus and Muhammad arrived.
The Polynesians discover Hawaii
Ceiling canoes were sometimes over 100 ft long
starting around 1200 or 1, 300 ADthe Hawaiians became isolated from other lands for about 500 years
Umi a liloa ruled Hawaii for a while
Pi'ilani give his daughter a marriage to Umi. Her name was Pi'ikea. This kept piece between the two kingdoms until Pi'ilani died.
The sons of Pi'ilani
The two sons fought and one ran over to Hana and fell in love with the daughter of the chief of Hana. She was already promised to the older son. The younger brother (Kiha) how to child with the girl and went to the big island and was protected by Umi. A vicious word broke out between Umi and the older brother (Lono).
Lono died of fright and Maui was split between The chief of Hawaii and Umi who work together very well for a very long time.
Ch2
A lot of war
Ch 3
Cook arrives
When he sees the island people start coming out in boats to trade
His rules for trading were no private trades, no showing guns, no sleeping with women (as might transmit disease). The rules were all broken except the one about guns.
After cooks men hooked up with the women around they were seen as less than divine.
The king's love Cook and he stays for the winter before leaving.
The leaves but the ship breaks so they have to come back.
They get a less than warm welcome from the common folks.
One of their smaller boats is stolen.
Cook tries to kidnap a chief to get it back.
He is killed by a mob on the way back to the boat.
Eventually the new captain makes peace and gets the remains hands/feet in jars and scalped skull back to do a proper burial.
Trading continues and they finish repairing ships before leaving.
Ch 4
The Olowalu Massacre was terrible
Don't duck with Kamehameha. It was hell of a war.
Ch 5
Galaup was a frenchman and the first to land on Maui.
Everything was quite peaceful and they had good trades.
However, he was eventually with his two ships in a hurricane. Luckily he sent back journals earlier.
This guy George Vancouver tried very hard to bring peace to the hawaiian islands and did a lot of good in making relations with all the chiefs.
Ch 6
The women take over and regain some rights.
The Christians managed to take over.
Ch 7
During the middle part of the 19th century Lahaina became the whaling capital of the world.
The sailors really liked to get drunk here and that became a problem because they would start trouble.
The captains of the ships wanted the city to stop selling alcohol.
Ohana became the center of education in the Hawaiian kingdom. They required all persons under 26 who wished to marry to prove their ability to read and write. this, coupled with strict laws prohibiting sex outside of marriage, led to remarkable level of literacy.
In 1846 there were almost 600 oil ships reaching Hawaiian ports. In the late 50s this started to decline.
Ch 8
Maui headwater and so they grow sugar. They grow sugar so they work able to get more water.
HP Baldwin was a badass. he lost his arm in a sugar plantation and then immediately started learning to use his left arm. He swang across a huge ditch to show his workers it was safe for many dasy using his left hand.
Ch 9
Plantations loved Hawaiian workers. They could not get enough and so more Asians were brought in. By the mid 1900s plantation owners controlled just about everything and had big influence in the government.
Ch 10
Even after world war 1 Maui was still relatively unknown and not often visited by tourists.
after Pearl harbor was bombed it was expected that Maui would be invaded and it was fortified.
Ch 11
In the '60s hippies came to Maui and people assumed they were the cause of all kinds of diseases. But it turned out not to be true.
Lahaina was intentionally pegged to be a big tourist destination and regulated to become such.
Ch 12
since the year 2000 Maui has been doing great. They have embraced tourism but put a lot of restrictions in place to protect the environment and culture. things still hang in the balance as more people come in and businesses by and sell other businesses.
February 20, 2023
I was looking at this book in Maui when I realised that my knowledge of Maui was limited to "that place Captain Cook visited in the late 1700s" and "the honeymoon destination". Oh, and "isn't that the island of the volcanos" as well as "I'm pretty sure that's NOT the island of the World War II attack".
Yeah. Not impressive.
I felt it a duty to learn more, and what would be a better expansion of knowledge than a small less-than-200-pages book that covers the history from the 6th century right up to modern?
The book provided exactly that overview I was seeking. A little bit of many impactful historical points lets the reader then decide any particular area to deep dive. I did find some interesting takeaways.
* The word "plantations" have a /very/ different connotation in Hawaii than the mainland. It is not the abysmal representation of human exploitation we recognise especially from The South. If anything, Hawaii saw them as healthy methods of economy with hired help.
* The bias in Hawaii during World War II did not align with the bias on the mainland. In fact, while Japanese internment camps were happening on the mainland, AJA's (Americans of Japanese Ancestry) were fighting bravely in Italy and France, earning love and appreciation back home.
* Where we see so often a White takeover (often by genocide) of Indigenous people, the local Mauian people enjoyed solid political power right along with many other cultures that came to the island to make home.
* And lastly, when so many diverse cultures were coming to Maui to live and build life, the culture remained strong and "magical", to use the author's term. But when people came with a sense of self-absorbency, or for a lark starting in the 1960s, the culture starting taking a real hit. The challenges of balancing what makes Maui so precious against the demands of true outsiders continue to create strife and frustration.
Yeah. Not impressive.
I felt it a duty to learn more, and what would be a better expansion of knowledge than a small less-than-200-pages book that covers the history from the 6th century right up to modern?
The book provided exactly that overview I was seeking. A little bit of many impactful historical points lets the reader then decide any particular area to deep dive. I did find some interesting takeaways.
* The word "plantations" have a /very/ different connotation in Hawaii than the mainland. It is not the abysmal representation of human exploitation we recognise especially from The South. If anything, Hawaii saw them as healthy methods of economy with hired help.
* The bias in Hawaii during World War II did not align with the bias on the mainland. In fact, while Japanese internment camps were happening on the mainland, AJA's (Americans of Japanese Ancestry) were fighting bravely in Italy and France, earning love and appreciation back home.
* Where we see so often a White takeover (often by genocide) of Indigenous people, the local Mauian people enjoyed solid political power right along with many other cultures that came to the island to make home.
* And lastly, when so many diverse cultures were coming to Maui to live and build life, the culture remained strong and "magical", to use the author's term. But when people came with a sense of self-absorbency, or for a lark starting in the 1960s, the culture starting taking a real hit. The challenges of balancing what makes Maui so precious against the demands of true outsiders continue to create strife and frustration.
April 9, 2018
This book exceeded my expectations, as I found it on a convenience store shelf in Maui. I enjoyed reading the history of the island while visiting. For me, the most engaging section was when the European explorers made contact with the Maui kingdom, which was a strange distraction for them during their inter-island war that had been escalating for some time. The author had accounts from ship logs for this part of history, which helped add detail to the events. I was reading some science fiction books about alien first contact at the same time, and I kept drawing parallels to the Hawaiian's first meeting with strange beings with mysterious technology. The morality of the visiting explorers and subsequent whaling ships was shocking at times and interesting to consider in retrospect. The latter half of the book seemed quite a bit more dry, but helped explain how the economy of the island developed from farming to tourism in the 20th century.
January 6, 2023
A really good short read on Maui. The book caught my eye when I was staying at a hotel in Maui this past summer. I thought it would be a good idea to learn more about the history of this island. Its not an exhaustive three volume set but a quick flyover over the island's history. The author did a good job in collecting information from sources and presenting a good picture of what the island was like from when Cook discovered the islands and the 18th century life as the Kingdom of Hawaii evolved and the peoples changed. A good read for someone visiting Maui and wants to get a general idea of the history and culture of island.
June 8, 2021
I know so little about the history of the Hawaiian Islands, specifically Maui, that when I found a book about it from the Maui Friends of the Library Bookstore (an excellent Bookstore to visit if you're ever in Maui!!), I got it!
I thoroughly enjoyed getting to learn about the culture, the history, the people of Maui while on the island. It made me really appreciate the unique places and the people who created such a unique lifestyle on the island.
#succeedingatreading2021 #150books #bookchallenge21 #booksof21
I thoroughly enjoyed getting to learn about the culture, the history, the people of Maui while on the island. It made me really appreciate the unique places and the people who created such a unique lifestyle on the island.
#succeedingatreading2021 #150books #bookchallenge21 #booksof21
November 3, 2017
時々変な文法とか誤字から4*だけあげる。それでちょっと邪魔だった。だけどたくさん習った感じだ。時々つまらなかったのにまだ面白い
I'm giving only 4* to this because of the sometimes stranger grammar and spelling mistakes. They made it quite distracting. I still feel like I learned a lot. It was boring at times but still interesting.
I'm giving only 4* to this because of the sometimes stranger grammar and spelling mistakes. They made it quite distracting. I still feel like I learned a lot. It was boring at times but still interesting.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews