Kategoria BISAC: History >> Oceania

Consuming Ocean Island tells the story of the land and people of Banaba, a small Pacific island, which, from 1900 to 1980, was heavily mined for phosphate, an essential ingredient in fertilizer. As mining stripped away the island's surface, the land was rendered uninhabitable, and the indigenous Banabans were relocated to Rabi Island in Fiji. Katerina Martina Teaiwa tells the story of this human and ecological calamity by weaving together memories, records, and images from displaced islanders, colonial administrators, and employees of the mining company. Her compelling narrative reminds us...

Consuming Ocean Island tells the story of the land and people of Banaba, a small Pacific island, which, from 1900 to 1980, was heavily mined for phosphate, an essential ingredient in fertilizer. As mining stripped away the island's surface, the land was rendered uninhabitable, and the indigenous Banabans were relocated to Rabi Island in Fiji. Katerina Martina Teaiwa tells the story of this human and ecological calamity by weaving together memories, records, and images from displaced islanders, colonial administrators, and employees of the mining company. Her compelling narrative reminds us...

On November 21, 1961, Michael C. Rockefeller, the twenty-three-year-old son of New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, vanished off the coast of southwest New Guinea when his boat capsized. He was on a collecting expedition for the Museum of Primitive Art, and his partner--who stayed with the boat and was later rescued--shared Michael's final words as he swam for help: "I think I can make it."

Despite exhaustive searches, no trace of Michael was ever found. Soon after his disappearance, rumors surfaced that he'd made it to shore, where he was then killed and eaten by the local Asmat--a...

"The book is blessed with an intrinsically interesting subject matter: the way in which the religious basis of societies all across Polynesia was suddenly torn up and deliberately rejected within a decade or two. The author succeeds in highlighting how extraordinary and dramatic the 'Polynesian Iconoclasm' was, drawing our attention to it as a coherent phenomenon, and penetrating these convulsions more deeply than other scholars have managed hitherto." - Alan Strathern, University of Oxford

"The book is an ethnographic tour de force describing in great detail the conversion to...

Lihu'e, Kaua'i is both representative of and uniquely different from other communities in Hawai'i. Its origins are rooted in the early days of the sugar industry. Over time, this once obscure hamlet branched out to become the island's county seat, commercial core, and transport hub--the "Heart of Kaua'i." Lihu'e: Root and Branch of a Hawai'i Town traces that history from its beginnings to the present day.

This extensively researched yet engagingly written account presents a vivid picture of the town's vernacular landscape--the built environment and the people who shaped it. Lihu'e...

From New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester, author of Atlantic and The Men Who United the States, a colorful and provocative exploration of the modern Pacific Ocean what it has been and the grip it holds on our future

Simon Winchester tackles this oceanic behemoth of eye-watering complexity by focusing on key moments since 1950 that speak to the greater trends and larger truths about the ocean s significance to us today.

Winchester leads us from the Bering Strait to Cape Horn, the Yangtze River to the Panama Canal, and to the many small islands that lie in between. He...

They say that one cannot truly understand a man unless one has walked a mile in their shoes. How would that ideology apply to a nation? What if it were one man that seemingly built a nation? What if this one man did not exist? Many would say to shoulder one person with such responsibility is cruel. Others say this is the way of honor. Yet, for one man, this was the truth of his life. That man is King Kamehameha.

Born a child like every other human being on the face of the planet, just like you and me, this man was born under a prophecy that would...