Thursday, April 19, 2012

A Journey into Hawaii:Lost Kingdom: Hawaii’s Last Queen, the Sugar Kings and America’s First Imperial Adventure

Posted by: emodel // Category: Uncategorized // 12:23 pm Travelers to Hawaii love the beaches, the scenery, the pineapples and the culture. To most visitors, America’s 50th state just grew out of a mutually beneficial relationship between the islands and the mainland. As with so much else in life, the explanation is not quite so simple. The flip side of that story — how it all looked to the native Hawaiians — is much darker. It is all found in LOST KINGDOM: Hawaii’s Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America’s First Imperial Adventure; By Julia Flynn Siler; Atlantic Monthly Press. At the center of the story is Lili‘uokalani, the last queen of Hawai‘i. Born in 1838, she lived through the nearly complete economic transformation of the islands. Lucrative sugar plantations gradually subsumed the majority of the land, owned almost exclusively by white planters, dubbed the “Sugar Kings.” Hawai‘i became a prize in the contest between America, Britain, and France, each seeking to expand their military and commercial influence in the Pacific. In this Journey, author Julia Flynn Siler traces Hawaii’s fraught history, from Captain Cook to American annexation. At http://conversationsontheroad.podbus.com/?p=720

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