Hawaii Books

After almost a century of modern-style research, the world is not exactly short of ethnographies. You can find works on everybody from Indiana town dwellers to Sri Lankan fishermen. Papua New Guinea, as an area where a wide variety of cultures, some with Stone Age technologies, endured well into the 20th century, attracted the attention of anthropologists right from the start. There are a very large number of books on the country, starting with Malinowskiýs seminal works on the Trobriand Islands during and after WW I. Most, but not all, of them concentrated on investigations of what are often referred to as ýtraditional culturesý, if not ýprimitiveý. Anthropologists, not unlike Western tourists, have often been lured by the ýexoticý parts of the world where cultures extremely different from their own could be found. Bateson, Burridge, Glasse, Heider, Hogbin, Mead, Pospisil, Rappaport, Reay, Schieffelin, and Wagner to name a few, gravitated to Papua New Guinea, drawn perhaps by the chance to study people whose cultures were ýuntouchedý by the West. ýUntouchedý is no doubt a relative word. A few others, especially Lawrence and Worsley, delved into the cargo cults, an aspect of Melanesian religion that sprang up in the wake of colonial pressures on traditional beliefs. Modern Papua New Guinea, with its Christianity, bureaucracy, development projects, education, corruption, urban crime, and population explosion, has not received so much attention. Until now. Michael French Smithýs VILLAGE ON THE EDGE is a delightful new ethnography based on work in the same village in the mid-1970s and then in the late ý90s. Based on the idea of observing change, because Kragur village, on Kairiru island, off the north coast of the country, has been changing rapidly for many decades, Smith succeeds brilliantly. To my taste, he strikes just the right note between popular writing and professional investigation. In a clear, jargon-less style, he covers many areas usually found in ethnographies, such as village structure, family structure, the economic and political system, and religious beliefs, but focusses on how all these things have changed. It is a down-to-earth, non-exotic picture of present dilemmas for the Kragur villagers who still, after over twenty years of independence, remain poised between a sharing, cooperative society based on personal ties and the money-based, more individualistic one introduced as a correct model by the West and emulated by educated, town-dwelling locals. Smith puts himself into the picture, admits to his predilections and difficulties. Refreshingly, he does not hide behind some false ýobjectivityý, but shows how he accepted certain privileges (and dealt with some problems) that came with being a ýwhitemaný. This honesty, coupled with a sense of humor and nice introduction of the flavor of Pidgin English or Tok Pisin, a national language in the country, made the book all the more appealing.

Melanesian societies often believed that knowledgeý-of magic or ritualý-held the key to success in any endeavor, would be the best guarantee of prosperity. Those who had the best knowledge grew the best crops, caught the most fish, or had the most successful trading relationships. But, if many people in the village had that knowledge, then the whole village would be prosperous and successful. Thus, Kragur villagers, like most Melanesians, saw Western education as the way to go if they wanted to raise their standard of living, to obtain money and an easier life. Get Western education, prosper like the Westerners. In a way, Smith points out in the heart of the book, they have been proven right, but the results challenge the whole belief system that underlay their society. For them, if individuals prosper, but the village does not, the new knowledge has failed to produce the desired result. But as time goes by, as more individuals prosper, will not the old ideals completely fade, will not the old cooperative society vanish ? The village is on the edge.

I urge everyone interested in knowing what Papua New Guinea is like today to read this book. It should be on every reading list dealing with the modern Pacific, modern Melanesia, or ýdilemmas of developmentý. If you are trying to attract students to the field of anthropology or to draw their attention to the process of writing ethnographies, you can hardly go wrong with VILLAGE ON THE EDGE.

This book is a well-researched and finely written scholarly work that really jars our standard picture of Tokugawa Japan. You know, the samurai governed and so concerned themselves with Confucian philosophy and ethical issues while the disenfranchised merchants blew their money in the pleasure quarters after a hard day's work, presumably complacent in this arrangement--so the story goes, but Najita shows us many different merchant thinkers in Japan's early modern moneymaking hub, Osaka, dealing with the crucial sociopolitical, economic issues of the day guided by their own distinct take on Confucian ideas and ideals (which included developing a rationale for this kind of philosophising on their part in the first place). These thinkers include the founders of the Kaitokudo Academy in 1726, Miyake Sekian and Nakai Shuan; then later scholars and teachers like Tominaga Nakamoto, Goi Ranju, Nakai Chikuzan, Nakai Riken, Kusama Naokata, and Yamagata Banto. Their interaction with other scholars like Ito Jinsai and Ogyu Sorai is also discussed, and we thereby get a fuller sense of their participation in the intellectual world of Tokugawa Japan and of what their particular contribution to that world was.
Anyone interested in Japan at all should read this book. I would especially recommend it to anyone interested in Japanese intellectual history or political economy. Also, if you want to know more about one of the finest and most underrated of cities, Osaka, you won't want to miss this.

I found this war memoir well worth reading. Drafted in 1943, when he was 35 and not getting along too well with his then wife, Edel's account of his time in the Army, up to the end of the war in Europe, is a fascinating view of a man who was very different, and in a favorable way, from many of his fellow soldiers. He had been a student in Paris in the years from 1928 to 1931 as well as spending time as a journalist in the mid-thirties, so he was a good man to be around when he arrived in Paris on the day of its liberation. His account of the celebration of the liberation of Paris is of high interest, and exciting. Anyone who appreciates wartime memoirs, as I do, will be glad to have read this very well-written account, published in 2000 (after the author's death in 1997).

A fascinating, sound, thoroughly researched, and eminently readable account of efforts to supply Hawaiian with a writing system, from the earliest explorers to the present. Charles F. Hockett, Goldwin-Smith Professor Emeritus, Cornell University.

i am 57 years old, farmer, intresting in passion fruit, more than 8 years expr.in working in my own farm in north of iran, caspian side,very successful in plantation,only producer in iran,and so...

This is an informative guide and picture book covering the volcanoes of Hawaii's Volcano National Park. It contains a brief introductory section covering general information about volcanoes and the types of volcanic activity that built the Hawaiian archipelago. There are then separate chapters for each of the volcanoes in the park: Mauna Loa, Kilauea, and Haleakala. End material includes a brief history of the volcano observatory on the rim of Kilauea, a selected bibliography, and a glossary. The book is amply illustrated with color photographs and maps.

Although brief, the text manages to convey considerable information. As we hiked through Volcano National Park, we wondered about the age of the different lava flows and the chemical composition of the lava. Answers to these questions and more were easy to find in this book. The book also contains images of most of the well known sights of the park.

For me this is a "blow me away" book. Although my first contact with Herb Kane, he feels familiar, comfortable, honest... besides being knowledgeable, creative, insightful. My feeling is that both his illustrations and his "story" about Hawaii is right.... it has been written and painted through him, you might say..... but this man is not a new-age flake.... very solid, very real.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, "In politics nothing happens by accident. If it happens you can bet it was planned that way." And sure enough that is exactly what happened according to Colonel Curtis Dall, Roosevelt's ex-son in-law.
In the pamphlet "The Warlords Of Washington" retired Radio Free World talk-show host/Documentary filmmaker, Anthony J. Hilder interviews Curtis Dall and exposes how individuals in the government and the International Banking Cartels conspired to sacrifice our brave American soldiers in the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941.

In the introduction Col Dall writes: "I welcome this opportunity to bring you the true story of the events, which led to the attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This attack was not only provoked but welcomed by the International Banking Cartelists and their agents working within the higher echelon of government within the United States."

Dall then alludes to the fact that the U.S. had foreknowledge that the Japanese were crossing the Pacific. Plus the fact that the Japanese purple code was broken six months in advance, which unequivocally means the U.S. knew exactly what was transpiring.
They even had the U.S. naval fleet moved from San Diego to Pearl Harbor. This attack was wanted because Roosevelt couldn't get congress to declare war against Adolph Hitler.
Besides, the Secretary of War wrote in his diary on November 25, 1941 that, "The question was how we should maneuver them (the Japanese) into firing the first shot, without allowing too much damage to ourselves. It was a difficult proposition." This quote is admissible evidence beyond a shadow of a doubt proving that the U.S. had foreknowledge of the attack.

Additionally, Dall charges that the "International Banking Cartelist conspire [d] for a world dictatorship through a one-world currency... not for the emancipation of man but the enslavement of mankind." Dall also said, "These same international war conspirators and their agents deliberately delayed the end of World War II so they could set up the fall of China to Mao Tse-Tung." Furthermore, he writes "They (the U.S.) deliberately extended the war to allow the Red Russian butchers to take over North Korea--they then sold Japan's Sakhalin Island," and America's Kurile Islands into slavery.

The sad reality is that this is all true "America and Japan received nothing but casualties, debt, and loss, while Soviet Russia, and their international Socialist Dictatorship won half of Europe and Asia. We in America got nothing from it except 292,000 dead, 672,000 wounded, and a bill for about $350 billion." Also the Japanese empire collapsed.

This 48 page collectors item is a must have if you want to properly ascertain how and why individuals in our government would commit such treasonous acts. This pamphlet covers Pearl Harbor and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Hilder and Dall expose all the lies, deceit, and corruption in Washington DC. And Dall's credibility is superior to most other historians when it comes to this subject because of his close relations to the Roosevelt family. After all he was Anna E. Roosevelt's first husband.

Also, Anthony J. Hilder has produced many great documentary films, two that come to mind are:

"9/11 The Greatest Lie Ever Sold"

"Illuminazi 9/11"

These are must watch films if you truly want to fathom the New World Order's method of madness!!!

The Warlords of Washington is a 5 star read.

I find that this book is a exceptional historical depiction into the legendary leader of the Hawaiian Islands. From his years as a youth, to the pinnacle of his reign as the most powerful and famous of kings to rule and unite all of the Hawaiian Islands. This book brings the reader back in time to when the Hawaiian Islands were under the rule of many kings and the events that transpired to create a one Hawaiian Nation, governed by one ruler for the prosperity of all of the Hawaiian people. This book is a must for avid individuals who want to learn about the historical events that built a nation known as Hawaii.

Another stellar Bushnell story. This is the continuation of The Stone of Kannnon, which recounts the story of the first Japanese arriving to the Hawaiian Islands (Maui). Unfortunately in the begining of the book I had a hard time remembering the characters. As I read on I began to remember, it was like meeting long lost friends. While the focous was on the immigrant workers that were building an irrigation ditch, I enjoyed the little side stories of some of the other immigrants who had decieded to go on to other endevors (farming, prositution). It was also interesting to see the contrast in some of the Hoale characters, which is very realistic to Hawaii. This author can defintely found a way to convey the feeling of Hawaii.