Nation Within: The History of the American Occupation of Hawai'i

The annexation of Hawai`i by the U.S., as well as the preceeding overthrow of Hawai`i by U.S. military forces and the installation of a republic, is not widely understood. In fact, most sources either gloss over the overthrow and annexation or else present a grossly misleading presentation which has worked its way from the writings of those who originally orchestrated the events into the average history book. Tom Coffman goes through much effort to review not only the body of secondary sources, but also a very large body of primary sources available from the records of the Republic, the various Hawaiian civic bodies, the original newspapers (including the Hawaiian language newspapers), the letters of American businessmen and politicians, and other sources. The synthesis he builds reveals a very insightful and different story of how and why Hawai`i went from an internationally-recognized autonomous nation to a property of the U.S. In contrast to the claims of many sources, the overthrow and annexation were against the wishes of the vast majority of Hawaiians, whose opinions are recorded in petitions stored at the U.S. National Archives as well as in the newspapers and Hawaiian-language writings of the time.Coffman goes well beyond merely correcting many of the common misconceptions about the stability of the monarchy and the opinions of the people of Hawai`i. He presents insights into the thinking and motivations of all involved parties, from various segments of the population of Hawai`i to businessmen and politicians in the U.S., and explains how Americans in Hawai`i and the U.S. worked together on the common goal of overthrowing and annexing Hawai`i.This is an important text for anybody trying to understand the history or current events of Hawai`i. It is also of interest to anybody who is interested in American politics at the turn of the century, as Manifest Destiny changed its goal from expanding to fill the continental U.S. into the U.S. exerting itself as an imperial global superpower.

This book is a revelation! I thought I knew quite a bit about the annexation of Hawaii into the United States, but Tom Coffman has gone back to original sources and come up with a new and compelling account. This book shows how the annexation of Hawaii was engineered by American planters and how mainland public opinion was manipulated into accepting the takeover. It also places the annexation in context of the imperialism and colonalism that was sweeping the world in the late 19th century. Finally, it shows the resistance of the Hawaiian people to being submerged in the American nation and gives us an idea of what is behind the sovereignty movement in Hawaii today. This book is not an easy read -- it's packed with detail and unfamiliar names and places. But if you want to look beyond "beautiful Hawaii" and read some little known US and world history, you will find this book fascinating.