Customer Reviews

A History of the Pacific Islands

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
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This is a very well-written introduction to South Pacific history, with the additional bonus of the author rejecting the 'politically correct' bias of more recent works which tend to demonize Europeans and sanctify the 'natives'. A must-read for anyone interested in the Pacific beyond the beaches and resorts.

I've lived and worked all over the Pacific starting as a 10 YO on Guam in 1946 and ending a few years ago in New Zealand. My home library has about 600 "Pacific" titles. I'm pleased to add this book. Hey, I may even buy a hardback edition.

Here the author compares and contrast the histories of Islands (and major groups) all over the Pacific and does it very well. The coverage, Micronesian, Polynesian and Melanesian in one place is something seldom seen. He quantifies things seldom mentioned; mining, foreign aid, commercial fishing in reasonable detail. And it has a great reading list.

And best of all, Balanced.

I think the best person to read this would be a Pacific Islander, especially of college age. What a way to find their way in their world.

(Edit: Page 86, Chuuk is not in the Mariana Islands. I'll give him one.)

Fischer's account of the Pacific is commendable for taking on Dumont d'Urville's potentially unwieldy designations - Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia - and producing a broad narrative which is accessible to the non-specialist. The fact that he grounds his narrative deep in the Pleistocene and from there charts the colonization of the Pacific is a promising sign. Of greatest interest is the final chapter which delves into issues such as women, sports and identity; topics which are dear to the hearts of many Pacific islanders. This is a good introduction for the uninitiated, and for those with prior interest it still has something to offer.

I have only two complaints. Firstly, there are a surprising number of spelling mistakes which have somehow eluded the proof-reader(s). Believe it or not, one can get quite distracted/annoyed by a single 'typo', of which this book has too many. Secondly, I appreciate the author's attempt to encapsulate Pacific lifeways, attitudes and regions, which he does by way of generalizations. But for Melanesia (of which I am most familiar), some of these generalizations are not accurate, to say the least. I refer specifically to the role of women and patrilineal societies. The author used the example of New Guinea to infer that Melanesia is thoroughly patrilineal and that women are not as valued as elsewhere. Quite clearly New Guinea is not all of Melanesia and this generalization ignores reality: there are in fact many Melanesian societies which are matrilineal and even elevate women above men. One need only look next door to the Bismarck Archipelago! For me, this glaring oversight is symptomatic of a book which only deals in such broad generalizations and therefore misses the real underlying diversity.

the book is certainly dry and only for people looking seriously into the pacific. The author's bias clouds the second half of the book, and he makes at least one conspicuous error (Cleveland did not run for president in 1896). Still, there's a great deal of information about pre-history, and it's hard to find a collected history of the area that's up to date.