Pacific University Books

Having just visited Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial last week[December 9th,2004] I recalled reading this book several years ago. I went over it again and recommend it highly. In crisp, no nonsense prose, Admiral Wallin tells us his view of the attack, and how he directed the salvage of 5 of the 8 battleships sunk on December 7,1941. For me, seeing the shattered remnant of the Arizona, tomb to 1177 Sailors and Marines[about 900 bodies remain]with Admiral Wallin's poignant description of the salvage and rescue efforts, delivered powerful reminders of the evil act of that first day of the war between Japan and America. There is the stirring saga of the rebirth of those shattered dreadnoughts, 5 of which fought successfully in the Battle for Leyte Gulf in 1944 to repay the enemy for treachery.
This book is not well known to history buffs, since it contains some technical details of how to refloat a 35,000 ton sunk battleship; nonetheless the author provides an insight into the tragedy not available easily even in other sources.

Penina Uliulu is a rare and precious black pearl of the Pacific. This book uses its title as metaphor; its aim is to be a "precious, rare, and colourful resource" for the current issues in mental health of Pacific peoples. It is, of course, refreshing to encounter studies of Pacific people written by Pacific people themselves. It is also rare, precious, and colourful to find so many voices unified by their Pacific distinctiveness yet reflective of their own unique cultures and experiences. This edited volume contains nineteen contributions, consisting of mainly essays, but also interviews and poetry. The end of the book includes a substantial categorized bibliography pointing to further resource material in Pasifika mental health. Divided into four sections, the book covers the broad topics of Pacific identities, spirituality, the Pacific unconscious, and trauma and healing.
The subjectivity and attached perspective of the essayists is definitely a major strength of the book. While the contributors are readily equipped to avoid the pitfalls of assumed Western objectivity, their first hand experiences are written down carefully and critically, unafraid to analyse and critique the sometimes negative aspects of their own cultures. This leads to an insightful read not only for Pacific people, but also those interested in learning how Pacific people see themselves.

This history of Polynesia by a man with a Maori heritage should not be missed. It is brilliantly written and full of fascinating detail. Buck proves that the real history of Polynesia is every bit as engaging as the mythical history. For example, in debunking myths about Easter Island, Buck makes these astute observations:

"Any Polynesian can improvise a chant. I have improvised chants to lengthen out a recital for a European audience that did not understand the language. Neither the bishop's informant nor I had any intention of deceiving, but we were both influenced by the desire to please."

Of the Easter Island carved wooden tablets, Buck says, "There is little doubt that the tablets were carved in Easter Island itself long after the time of Hotu-matua, but were attributed to him to give them the increased antiquity that all Polynesians revere" (p. 241). He adds that "it is problem that the characters are purely pictorial and are not a form of written language" (p. 243).

Buck's conclusion about crackpot theories involving Easter Island is devastating: "The resurrection of an extinct civilization from a sunken continent to do what the Easter Islanders accomplished unaided is surely the greatest compliment ever paid to an efficient stone-age people" (p. 245).

All this applies to claims by Thor Heyerdahl, the Mormons, and the Lost Continent of Mu enthusiasts.

It is sad to think that Heyerdahl's career as a fearless adventurer is marred by his zealous devotion to a dated idea. Yes, Peruvian Indians could have crossed the Pacific, but it is more likely that contact came from the other way. At any rate, Heyerdahl manufactured the archaeological evidence he found on Easter Island.

In the July 2002 issue of the "Smithsonian Magazine," Richard Conniff demonstrated that Heyerdahl actually paid the natives to make reed-boats relics (Kon Artist?" was the title). "A good story," said Conniff, "can be so compelling that teller and subject become entrapped together in its charms...." (p. 28). This astute observation could apply to novels claimed to be actual history, and anyone interested in the Book of Mormon should give it long thought.

Heyerdahl wrote about Pedro Pate, an Easter Islander and how Pate found a two-masted reed boat in a cave. Conniff wrote: "I showed Pate a two-page photograph of the reed boat from Heyerdahl's book, and he grinned. He'd carved the boat himself, he said. Dubious, I offered him $100 to carve such a boat now, 37 years later, and he accepted." "A few days later, he presented me with the 18-inch-long reed boat he had carved. It was as good as the one in the book" (p. 29).

In "The Ancient American Civilizations," Friedrich Katz asked some very hard questions of Heyerdahl's theory.

"If the Polynesians really do come from America, why do their chronicles record the exact opposite direction, naming South-East Asia as their place of origin? Why is their language first and foremost related to South-Asiatic and Malayan languages? Finally, as Trimborn remarked, 'Were not the Polynesian Vikings, rather than the Indians, not the sailors who crossed the high seas?'" (p. 18).

Heyerdahl should also be criticized for playing word games, selecting a word here and there, but ignoring the whole language. Many linguists criticized this erroneous method of relating two ancient peoples. The Mormon writer Professor Hugh Nibley was famous for such inherently false linquistic acrobatics. See my reviews of Nibley's books: Click here: Since Cumorah (Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol 7)

See Robert Wauchope's magnificent little book, "Lost Tribes and Sunken Continents: Myth and Method in the Study of the American Indians." See my review. Lost Tribes and Sunken Continents Myth Method in the

Mormon writers frequently cite Heyerdahl because he proved that ancient voyages across the oceans were possible--an idea going back hundreds of years and not new with Heyerdahl. Very few scholars ever denied that such ancient voyages were possible. See my review of Kon Tiki. Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft

Also, read Robert Wauchope's little book "Lost Tribes and Sunken Continents: Myth and Method in the Study of the American Indians." Click here, then scroll down to my review: Lost tribes and sunken continents: Myth and method in the study of American Indians

After soaking in the misty haze of the crackpots, reading "Vikings of the Pacific" is like breathing a fresh, cool breeze.

Your comments--good or bad--are appreciated. Thanks.

Expeditions of adventure didn't end with the demise of Captain Cook in 1780: further expeditions were soon dispatched, but too few accounts provide general-interest readers with their specifics. Six of Cook's successors and their Pacific journeys are revealed in Pioneers Of The Pacific: Voyages Of Exploratio, 1787-1810 through the collaborative efforts of Nigel Rigby, Pieter van der Merwe and Lyn Williams. Illustrations in color from a range of international sources accompany biographical and adventure sketches of the six early explorers who continued Cook's legacy and considers their lasting impact, from Arthur Philip, the founder of the first British colony in Australia, to Alejandro Malaspina, whose Spanish expedition's achievements were overshadowed by his later disgrace.

PLAINS INDIAN HISTORY AND CULTURE by John C. Ewers is a collection of essays and articles from the author from 1967 to 1994. Ewers lacks no qualification here. He has served as the first curator of Museum of the Plains Indian on the Montana Blackfeet Reservation and has written and edited several other books related to Plains Indians.

Ewers is quick in his essays to set the record straight regarding the 20th century trend toward revisionist history. In his opening salvo, he points out that there are more American Indians alive today than there were in the mid-1800's and possibly at any time in their history. Though he readily agrees that the American Indian was dealt a lousy hand in the annals of American history, he equally points out that the "Indian - good, white settler - bad" mantra that has overwhelmed the teachings of white/Indian relations is also far from the truth. As he explains at the conclusion of his first essay, "I do not believe that Custer died for my sins. Nor do I believe that historians or anthropologists should try to expiate their sense of guilt by rewriting history of the American West so as to portray all Indians as red knights in breechclouts, or all white as pantalooned devils."

Throughout this series of splendid essays, you can almost feel yourself sitting in a lecture hall, hearing Ewers as he delivers his findings. Because the lectures were given at various times, there is to some degree, a certain amount of repetitiveness, but it hardly detracts from this fine collection of work. The essays themselves have some extent of similarity. For instance, Chapter 1, "When Red and White Men Met" covers some of the same ground as found in Chapter 3, "The Influence of the Fur Trade upon the Indians of the Northern Plains". But then, you find essays on totally unrelated matter, such as Chapter 6, "Symbols of Chiefly Authority in Spanish Louisiana".

Ewers deftly debunks countless revisionists myths throughout the book. Not the least of which is the notion that the white man disrupted some sort of harmonious utopian coexistence among the red tribes. The reader finds in elaborate detail, factual evidence to the contrary. That's not to say that Ewers holds the Indians solely accountable for their demise, but he does point out, for example, that very few Indians took advantage of the opportunity to adapt to changing times and meld into a sedentary existence of farming or ranching when that opportunity was clearly available.

This is an outstanding collection of essays and Ewers expertise on the subject matter is clearly evident from start to finish. The book concludes with 40 pages of notes and detailed bibliography providing ready resources for further study. Of the many books I have read pertaining to the American Indians, this is certainly one of the most objectively presented works I've found. A great addition to your bookshelf.

Monty Rainey
www.juntosociety.com

Since the wall dividing the Germanies cae down, symbolically marking the end of the Cold War, three new movements have become clear in the strategic planning of the more powerful nations: (1) regional issues ae supplanting global ones; (2) roles and missions forthe armed forces are changing; (3) the ballance between military and economic strength is shifting toward the economic. The United States is experiencing major changes in all three areas. With the third area in particular, U.S. planners urgently need new policies to exploit technological advantages in general, and military uses of civil space in particular.

Plowshares and Power offers a framework for creating such policy alternatives. It examines future possibilities in three military applications of civil space: remote sensing, communication, and navigation. In suggesting a new mix of strategies for each application, it finds a single common basis rooted in the changing balance of strength between the military and the economic - namely, export controls for new technology. It offers a detailed model as a standeard for a new technology policy - one that would help create technology advantage, preserve it, and maintain control over technology transfer.

Colonel Preston's work cuts through the complexities and uncertainties of the issues he addresses. His vision is to sustain our critical military advantage in advanced space technologies and, by so doing, maintain the powerful economic force of U.S. commercial growth in these technologies. He envisions a controlling strategy in which military power and economic power are not competitive with each other but synergistic. He offers an alternative to a long-standing policy of stringent control of the spread of space tecxhnologies through transfer, suggesting instead multilateral approaches that would strengthen the U.S. economy, control proliferation technology, and improve the overall security of the nation.
--- from Foreword by Ervin J. Rokke

If you want to include excellent review of this book I suggest you include the following: Chris Tiffin. Mana. 3(1) p.140-142; Oct 1978 James Bertram. Listener. 88(1995) p.54-5; Mar 25 1978. World Literature Today. 52 p.696; Autumn 1978. World Literature Today. 52 p.247; Spring 1978. Sally Lodge. Publishers Weekly. 218 p.83; Oct 31 1980. Library Journal. 106 p.473; Feb 15 1981.

The Polynesian colonization of the islands of the Pacific during the last millenia or two was the outcome of a long period of systematic exploration. Irwin has shown how this was possible, grounding his argument on a thorough knowledge of the geography and prevailing winds of the area. Both the story he tells and the way he gets his results are fascinating. The book is not difficult to read, but demands a willingness to follow detailed technical arguments.

Excellent history of the orgins of the Air National Guard. If you want to understand the evolution of the state vs. federal policy debate with respect to the US Air Force (federal miltiary) and the Air National Guard this is a Must Read.

Count Alexis Tolstoi (Aleksei Konstantinovich Tolstoi) was born in St. Petersburg in 1817. The author described in Editorial Reviews is another person (also a Russian writer) - Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi.
The author of "Prince Serebryani" (a Historical Novel of the Times of Ivan the Terrible and of the Conquest of Siberia) could not return to Russia in 1923 after the Bolshevik Revolution, because he (A.K. Tolstoi) died in 1875.