Hawaii's Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America's First Imperial Adventure
October 10, 2011
Behind the modern bustle of the nation’s only island state lies this sad, sobering tale of decline, betrayal, and imperialism. It centers on the admirable last monarch of the Hawaiians, Queen Lilu’okalani, who struggled against palace intrigue, American sugar barons, and eventually cynical American military diplomacy before losing her throne in 1893, a few years before the U.S. simply annexed the Hawaiian islands as American territory. Wall Street Journal contributing writer Siler (The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty) skillfully weaves the tangled threads of this story into a satisfying tapestry about the late 19th-century death of a small nation at the hands of United States imperialists and businessmen like Claus Spreckels, a German immigrant grocer turned sugar refiner, who by 1876 had bought up half of Hawaii’s anticipated sugar crop. The leading character, the queen, comes off as more done to than doing, yet Siler convinces you that the well-meaning, staunch Lilu’okalani had few options when confronted with superior power. Siler’s history would have benefited from an interpretive thread, but it makes up in sympathetic detail what it lacks in stimulating ideas.
December 1, 2011
Too many Americans forget (if they ever knew) that our island paradise was acquired via a cynical, imperious land grab in which wealthy businessmen, the military, and the government conspired. Siler, an award-winning journalist, skillfully places her account within the context of late nineteenth-century great power rivalry, as France, Britain, and the U.S. sought dominant position in the Pacific. By the 1890s, American businessmen, especially the sugar kings, dominated the Hawaiian economy through control of the sugar crop. When that fact combined with the flowering of American naval ambitions, Hawaii's status as an independent kingdom was doomed. Siler's narrative concentrates on the efforts of Queen Lili'uokalani to stave off American annexation. The missionary-educated queen is seen as an admirable, tragic figure whose efforts to straddle both the modern and traditional Hawaiian worlds proved futile. This is a well-written, fast-moving saga that explores a seamy aspect of our territorial growth.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)
Starred review from January 1, 2012
In Siler's second book (after The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty), she brings to life the story of America's annexation of the sovereign Hawaiian Islands. She begins when Christian missionaries from Boston landed on Hawaii in 1820--when Western powers truly began to influence Hawaiian affairs--and follows the birth and life of Lili'uokalani, the woman who would become the last queen of Hawaii. American sugar planters, the self-styled Sugar Kings, slowly took over most of the arable land on the islands, while Lili'uokalani's elder brother King David Kalakaua became deeply indebted to them. He eventually sought a loan from England to pay off the Sugar Kings. Several countries, including America, England, and France, looked to the Pacific for colonial expansion and became embroiled in the controversies in Hawaii until American forces deposed Lili'uokalani against the will of the vast majority of native Hawaiians. VERDICT Siler gives readers a sweeping tale of tragedy, greed, betrayal, and imperialism. The depth of her research shines through the narrative, and the lush prose and quick pace make for engaging reading. Anyone interested in Hawaiian history or American imperialism will find this an absorbing read. [See Prepub Alert, 7/10/11.]--Crystal Goldman, San Jose State Univ. Lib., CA
Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
October 1, 2011
Wall Street Journal contributing writer Siler (The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty, 2007) rehearses the dark imperial history of how Americans first arrived in the islands, how they rose in power and how they deposed the queen and took everything. The author's story really has no heroes. Although she is deeply sympathetic with the last queen, Lili‘uokalani, the monarchs of Hawaii during the latter part of the 19th century did not exactly rule with Solomonic wisdom or Diogenic austerity. They coddled the white planters, amassed enormous debts and lived an egregiously wasteful lifestyle. Still, as Siler shows, the islands were theirs, and the white settlers took them away. The author begins with some quick geological and archaeological history and summarizes the misadventures of Captain Cook. Next, she leaps to 1893, the moment of crisis for the queen, then returns to 1820 and moves relentlessly forward to the late 1890s, when the United States annexed the islands, permanently ending the monarchy. (Oddly, as the author notes, a statue of the queen now stands facing the Hawaiian legislative building.) Born in 1838, Lili‘uokalani was not in direct line to the throne, but deaths and power politics eventually placed her there. As she relates the queen's pathway to power, Siler also tells about famous visitors, Herman Melville (1843) and Mark Twain (1866) among them. But this is mostly the story of white entrepreneurs and missionaries who came and conquered. One man, Claus Spreckels, created a massive sugar empire, transforming the landscape, altering waterways, operating a fleet of steamships and benefitting from the cooperation of the royals. Eventually, white economic interests trumped all else, and the queen struggled and failed to retain authority. A well-rendered narrative of paradise and imperialism.
(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
August 1, 2011
When the U.S. Marines marched into Honolulu in 1893, Lili'uokalani, last queen of Hawaii, had already lost her fight to enact a constitution assuring the power of the monarchy, and much of the land was owned by white-skinned sugar barons. Plus, America won its long-simmering dispute with France and Britain for control of this island paradise. Siler's best-selling The House of Mondavi concerned not just wine but business; here she's talking about sugar and politics.
Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.