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Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen

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Hawai`i's Story by Hawai`i's Queen Lili`uokalani details an account of the heartache and tragedy of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy by the Committee of Safety (Missionary Party) in the late 1800s. Written in the Victorian style of the times by the queen herself, her account shows she was very well aware that she and her people were doomed. Lili`uokalani proves herself a very dignified and regal lady, every inch a queen. Highly recommended reading for the real facts of this tragic period of Hawaiian history.

You are there with her in her emotions as you read the accurate accounts from her own words. Who can deny the facts coming from a book written by our beloved Queen Lili`uokalani herself? An incredible woman, faced in a powerless state of being...A Queen of Hearts...

Hawaii's Story is a brief and somewhat long winded tale. This book part autobiography and part memoir, details the life of Queen Lili'uokalani the last monarch of the Hawaiian Islands. The Queen describes the events of her life in some cases in minute detail. A devout Christian and a socialite, the Queen constantly describes dinner parties as well as other social occassions she attended. In some places the Queen does detail the happenings on the Hawaiian Islands, and finally toward the end of the book she details the overthrow of her administration and the attempts by the new provisional government to annex the Islands to the U.S.

The Queen makes some valid points in arguing against annexation by the U.S. The book does contain some interesting chapters detailing the resulting investigation of U.S. authorities into her regimes overthrow and how the Cleveland Administration attempted to end the wrongful overthrow of the Queen. The Queen till the end is a respectful and articulate writer and never seems as though her anger has influenced her words. Hawaii's Story is a sad chapter in U.S. History. This book contains many pieces of interesting information and is a good starting place for those interested in studying the subject. Those looking for a more in-depth analysis or a more direct. factual account on Hawaii's history should look further as they will not find much information on Hawaiis history outside of the late 1800s.

Hawaii's last queen really shows how gracious and how much ALoha has had in her life. THis is a wonderful insight into her life and times. A story that shows how much she loved all her people as well as those on her islands. She holds no grudge or bitterness towards those who so wrongly dethoroned and mistrated her so poorly. A must read for an historian and those who want to know what really happend over in a wonderful place called Hawaii.

Lili`uokalani was the final native monarch of the Kingdom of Hawai'i. The illegal overthrow of her legitimate government by the Doles and other (American) foreigners is detailed in this volume.

I first heard of Lili`uokalani as a child & was very surprised to find this book available from my local library system recently. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will now purchase a copy for my own reference. If you want to know the TRUE history of Hawai'i, I can think of no better place to start than this original source. As Queen of Hawai'i and as co-ruler with her brother before his death, she was in possession of information and written sources which are no longer available except in her own recitation.

I HIGHLY recommend this book.

Most Americans don't know that Hawaii had it's own sovereign Kingdom along with a constitution and monarchy. Businessmen along with the U.S. military conspired to over throw the legitimate government of Hawaii (where have we heard this before?) Queen Liliuokalani writes in plain detail for all to see what happened during the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Hawaii's Story is a very good book in understanding the history of what happened to the Hawaiian people and their government.

This is the only book you will ever need to read on the 1893 fall of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Incredible that after over 100 years this book along with the Blount report to Congress remain the only true and unbaised account of the 1893 fall of the Hawaiian Kingdom. LILIUOKALANI was a highly regal & educated woman of grace. She was a far kinder and wiser ruler than her famous brother King Kalakua although in her lifetime this was not viewed as true. Her overthrow and name is used today by many ugly racist elements in Hawaii which I doubt she would have approved of. I personally would like to think she would be proud of modern Hawaii and the role all races played in it's development.

They say that history is written by the victors. In the case of the Hawaiian history I believe that is absolutely true. I had this book on the shelf a long time and never read it. What prompted my interest was a biographical podcast on the life of Queen Liluokalani. In the podcast they were (I believe) extremely critical of her. The podcast said she had "No Mercy" and called for beheading of the conspirators. What bothered me was this was a random podcast by someone who did not seem to have an axe to grind, after all they did many different biographical subjects from history. Seriously questioning this podcasts facts I noticed this book on my shelf, "Hawaii's Story." I was surprised who wrote it, the Queen herself. I was extremely impressed by her intelligence and style of writing (although her diction is dated and sounded like Charles Dickens) What still interested me though, was to know if it was true she had no mercy and sought beheading's. After reading her side of the story, I have concluded, yes someone at some time had made that accusation, even though I have not read or found the source of the accusation. But if one is to know Hawaii and Hawaiian history, one can also generally conclude that many false accusations were made at that time to discredit the Hawaiian monarchy. It is easy to believe those accusations when you come from a background were the European nations are believed superior. I can safely conclude that although displeased with the conspirators, this Christian raised, well educated women regarded the sanctity of life. I am sure wild accusations flew from all sides, seems the nature of politics. What I see is people who are not from Hawaii, years later seem to lend greater credence to the stories that she was merciless rather than examine the injustice. In conclusion I have seen that history is written by the victors!

I used this not only as resource material but for reading assignments when I taught a university level class on Hawaiian Women.
This gave my students an opportunity to hear from a significant figure in Hawaii's history in her own words. An compasionate and literate woman, my students were able to gain a unique point of view, a reigning Queen.

Queen Liliuokalani was a very trusting and good hearted soul...she trusted the wrong haoles and paid for it very dearly with the loss of her islands. The old saying goes...."When the white man came, they told us to look up to the heavens, to God, and when we looked down, our land was gone". It's very sad. She was very well educated and proud of her people. It's too bad the US couldn't just leave the islands alone as they ruined the beauty of it....it's become another "Miami Beach" resort....nothing special.