1. Oceania's Island World: Geographic and Conceptual Background; 2. Timeless Backwater, or Written out of History?; 3. Encountering New Environments: The Ends of Polynesia; 4. Navigating Inhabited Lands: The Americas and the Polynesian Outliers; 5. Political Epics in Island Societies; 6. Oceania Encounters Europe; 7. From a Millennium of Contacts to Islander Futures.