Oceania Books

The Pacific Ocean is Earth's largest single feature and covers a third of the planet's surface. But photographer Peter Hendrie has found inspiration enough to add a whole new dimension to the beauty and power of its landscape and the richness of its cultures. It's a dimension that allows him to transform landscape and lifestyle from the merely pictorial to a vibrant experience of the Pacific legend. His pictures capture the piquancy of the moment the image was taken,prompting envy of the photographer's vision plus a valuable insight into how to read such evocative images. No other places on Earth possess the enduring magic of Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia, and Hendrie powerfully reinforces their merger of romance and reality.
I rate Pacific Journeys - 5/5

The Pacific Ocean is Earth's single largest feature and covers a third of its surface. But photographer Peter Hendrie has found inspiration enough to apply a whole new dimension to the beauty and power of its panorama and the richness of its cultures. It is a dimension that allows him to transform landscape and lifestyle from the purely pictorial to a vibrant experience of the Pacific legend. His images possess the piquancy of the very moments he captured them, prompting an envy of his vision and a thoroughly-satisfying lesson in how to read evocative images. Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia have no equals when it comes to enduring magic, and Hendrie brilliantly reinforces their unique merger of romance and reality.
I rate Pacific Journeys - 5/5

This is one of those rare academic books that has much to say to the general reader as well. The images are both beautiful and disturbing. I never before realized just how outsiders viewed women of the Pacific regions... once you see it, though, you'll always be aware of it. Dr. O'Brien has written a powerful and important book.

The general reader with an interest in women's studies, history or anthropology will find O'Brien's book, as I did, a well researched and thoroughly intriguing study of Pacific women's lives since the earliest voyages of discovery. The colonial stereotypes of the exotic Pacific woman are analyzed in a contemporary perspective from the viewpoints of art, literature, film and journals of the explorers and missionaries. This book opened my eyes to the facts that since the 1500's women of the Pacific have been romanticized, educated by missionaries, used, abused and sexually exploited for the advantage of the colonial powers.This is a "must read" for understanding the myth of "The Pacific Muse". It opens another window for understanding women's lives for those of us lacking background of Pacific history during this period.

If you ever want to know anything about the rainforest, this is the series to buy. The author thoroughly discusses people, environment, and hope for rainforests. Beautiful colored pictures throughout the book supports the easy written text. I highly recommend this series to any student who needs to do a report on the rainforest. This series is a must have in any children's library collection.

If you ever want to know anything about the rainforest, this is the series to buy. The author thoroughly discusses people, environment, and hope for rainforests. Beautiful colored pictures throughout the book supports the easy written text. I highly recommend this series to any student who needs to do a report on the rainforest. This series is a must have in any children's library collection.

My history professor claims that this is one book which former students complain about years after having read it. It is dense. There are lots of odd names which run together. It is absolutely not for the casual reader. But I would consider it necessary reading for all scholars of China, Asia, or just history in general. I found it fascinating that the steppe tribes and the various Chinese governments had a not-always unspoken agreement, in which the tribes were essentially allowed to conquer a limited region of China, in exchange for securing trade routes and defending against tribes outside of the system.

Barfield's primary thesis is that the dynamics of Chinese civilization are not intelligible considered in isoloation. Rather, comprehension requires the distinction between Manchurian and Native dynasties and the role that empires of the steppe played in the changes between them.

Of special interest is that by far the best know steppe empire, that of the Mongols under Temujin and his successors, was an anomalous exception to the 2,000 year pattern. Typical steppe empires were interested in extortion (or tribute, or gifts, depending on who tells the story), not direct rule.

If you're a student of Chinese history or of the dynamics of civilizations, read this book. You'll think differently.

the photos are great, i just wish there were more. i am not very interested in the human beings that performed the research, and wish there was more about the animals...

I received this book from a thoughtful, loving, and dear kindred spirit of a friend and while it is being marketed as a children's book, I found that it was just as wonderful as an animal lover's or even a conservationists' (organic-free trade-decaffeinated) coffee table book. Nic Bishop's up close and personal photography is beyond any Life Magazine or National Geo quality color photos. Sy Montgomery's writing takes the reader along on the expedition with all the science, language and even a bit of humor provided in part by the guides. Montgomery has created a fun book for kids and adults alike! A great gift for high school graduates to inspire them to follow their dreams and passions. For kid's, this would make a cake science report book!

Worth buying, Asia is still much like this under the glitz and glamour. The essence is captured!

The story Rain is extraordinarily memorable. I recommend this book, though it's definitely not upbeat!

I read these books many years ago and found them moving, perhaps 'The Sword and the Blossom' the most moving. This, the third book, attempts to understand the Japanese character as it was experienced by the POWs. It's not pretty, but it is necessary if you want to try to come to grips with quite a lot of the meanings behind the Pacific theatre of WWII.

Parkin's writing is well-balanced, as pointed out. The brutality, sadism and all the other things can't be hidden. Parkin wrestles with the complexity of the Japanese psyche in the war. The POWs are men in extreme situations. Some may not act as well as they may have liked, but Parkin doesn't judge them: who could? There are quietly heroic acts that just seem 'normal', but Parkin doesn't make a big deal about it.

What shines through is the author's humanity. In spite of the brutality, he can appreciate the people he meets, the world around him (e.g. 'the coruscating sea'), and capture it in his sketches.

The novels were first published in London in the 1960's, the author himself stating it took this long for him to take a balanced view of the things he saw as a sailor during war and as a prisoner of war under the Japanese. His hand drawn pictures in these works were made whilst in Custody under threat of execution if seized.

Before the war, PARKIN was a professional sailor, after the war he studied as a classical artist, and worked on the wharfs of Melbourne as a tally clerk.

This description meets his works, his love of the sea, his artwork throughout the works, his beautiful descriptions, and his exacting detail.

The first novel is of a shipwreck survivor, it doesn't show it, but he is the hero portrait, it is a TRUE story. The second is a diary of his captivity on the Burma railway, and the third of his captivity in Japan, including the dropping of the A-Bomb. 'He states that a newspaper dropped in by air to Japan when he was first released has three momentous events, atomic weapons, jet propulsion and ball point pens'.

His works are not bitter, if anything appreciative of having lived a life less fortunate. Very Australian in it's style and language, it is as moving as any of the recognized greats. I will not wax lyrical about its style further, the editorials above do so far more eloquently than I could.

This book was hard to find or buy in book stores in australia. I found the seller reliable and provided the book in perfect condition and the delivery was quick.

This masterful work by Paul Carter revisits the historical assumptions about the founding of Australia. Carter rejects previous assertions (assumptions) that lay behind a form of Australian history such as the primacy of empirical "facts" and the self-evident rhetoric of cause and effects. Instead, Carter attempts to explain the imagination of a place as somewhere one could be and he illustrates the imperial qualities of this imagination (especially as it pertains to langauge and naming). Early narratives of exploration (such as Capt. James Cook) are used to explain Australian history as a project of European meaning-making and this moves away from imperial history which assert capital-T universal Truth and toward a spatial understanding of Australia as a particular space that Westerners moved through in a particularly Western way.

This book is out of print, but should be near the top of any person's list of must-reads for spatial theory. It is erudite, combining historical analysis with philosophical frameworks, but it is also extremely readable and even poetic in its language. This is only natural as Carter is also a poet. Grab a copy of this book before they all disappear and while it remains a great bargain used.

Writen by the Head of the (Royal) Naval Historical Branch, The Royal Navy and the Falklands War is quite simply the finest account of the naval war yet written. With detailed access to official documents and widely illustrated with photographs form both official and private sources, the book traces the history of the campign from the naval perspective in a day by day, blow by blow account.
The narrative is easy to follow, either as a cover to cover read or a book to dip into for specific information about key events. There is a seperate chapter dealing with ships taken up from trade, (STUFT), and appendices listing all ships from both navies that took part in the war. An excellent read and a "must have" book for the serious reader.

Writen by the Head of the (Royal) Naval Historical Branch, The Royal Navy and the Falklands War is quite simply the finest account of the naval war yet written. With detailed access to official documents and widely illustrated with photographs form both official and private sources, the book traces the history of the campign from the naval perspective in a day by day, blow by blow account.
The narrative is easy to follow, either as a cover to cover read or a book to dip into for specific information about key events. There is a seperate chapter dealing with ships taken up from trade, (STUFT), and appendices listing all ships from both navies that took part in the war. An excellent read and a "must have" book for the serious reader.

This is a Volume I of a two-volume set.

I saw this two-volume book first time in Apia, the capitol city of Samoa. It was the hard copy edition presented in a show case of the Rainforest Restaurant, whose owners were two historians working passionately on a creation of a small museum of Samoan Art and culture of Samoa. I was astonished about the amount of details in this book. The more astonished I was, as I saw how many well situated Samoans were visiting the Swiss/German couple to consult this book regarding their genealogy and heritage! This source might just as well prove predecessors in old Samoan ruling nobility or even... a divine origin!

For a contemporary reader Krämer's book might be a difficult lecture though. Krämer brings together facts and legends. Parts of the text are written in Samoan, and sometimes I could not find out any specific rule for the switching between the German and Samoan languages. Fortunately, mostly one page is in Samoan, and the opposite page is in English, like a Roseta Stone of a kind! The translator of the book, Dr. Verhaaren, remarks in his foreword that Krämer was somewhat inconsistent in his spelling of Samoan words.

In my opinion Krämer created a great documentary, but he was not a good writer. The great amount of details, which Krämer by himself often calls just a hearsay, have probably a great value for scholars or lovers of Polynesian mystique, but they might only confuse casual reader. Nevertheless he seems to be very careful about differentiation between facts and rumors.

One of the interesting aspects of this book are the details about the travels, marriages and wars between Samoans, Tongans and even the Melanesian Fijians. Many contemporary families on Samoa know through these reports that their heritage reaches hundreds of miles apart from Samoa. Samoans were splendid navigators and they undertook numerous long distance voyages. There was a good reason that Samoa earned the name "Navigator Islands" after being discovered by Europeans. Unfortunately, the contemporary Islanders lost solely their ability to navigate on the open Ocean over such distances.

The book contains a large number of beautiful photographs of Samoan people, and of the entire Samoa from the colonial period, in which Great Britain, USA and Germany were still quite friendly nations "negotiating" their spheres of influence in the Pacific. As you might know, Samoa is still a divided country and the American sponsored government in Pago Pago tries to deepen the differences between the Samoans on the neighboring Islands. They feel very cozy in their present arrangement, and so they try to prevent a reunification. It is fascinating to see in this book the Samoa as it once was, a one entity.

This book is a fascinating "must have" collectible for scholars, passionate off road travelers, and everyone else looking for island nostalgia. The publisher, Hawaii Press, made a great effort to provide splendid quality of typesetting and print.

My only regret is that we wait for so many years for a matching release of the Volume II!

The price is right. Get this book!

This is a comprehensive and interesting exposition on the history of Samoa.

It is a privilege that it is now available in English so that the information can be more widely read.