The View from Diamond Head: Royal Residence to Urban Resort

This book is excellent for the unfamiliar as well as someone who is familiar with the area of Oahu the book talks about. I grew up on the windward side in the sixties and knew very little history of Honolulu, eventhough on Saturday night friends and I would cruise Kalakaua Ave as most teenagers did at that time. In a way the fate of Waikiki is sad but in other ways what it developed into was very beneficial for the community and state of Hawaii. I would recommend this book to anyone who has a desire to find out who and what was responsible for the outcome of the Waikiki area.

As a long-time resident of Honolulu (23 years) as I was growing up (we moved there in 1965), I developed a great love of Hawaiian history. This fine book, with its wealth of photographs of the early days of the late 19th century and early 20th, is a treasure. The written history is also very informative and well done. If you are interested in the development of Honolulu, the passing of the Hawaiian monarchy and Honolulu as it once was, this is a fantastic book. It made me sad for what Honolulu has become and wistful for days long past...