Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii [Hardcover]

Samuel M. Kamakau (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Kamehameha Schools Press; Rev Sub edition (May 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087336015X
• ISBN-13: 978-0873360159
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,772,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent account of early history of Hawaiian Kingdom, May 9, 2009

By 

lordhoot "lordhoot" (Anchorage, Alaska USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii (Paperback)

Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii was written during the late 1860s to 1871 by Samuel Manaiakalani Kamakau, one of the great native Hawaiian historians of his days. The author probably had many primary sources to write his account of the early days of Hawaiian history, many of the oral sources that is no longer available in our modern period.

The book is quite interesting as it traced the history of Hawaii from the great chief Umi who lived eight generations prior to King Kamehameha I. But the crux of the book really begin with Kamehameha I and ends with Kamehameha III's reign. The story of how Kamehameha I united the the island into a single kingdom is a good one. Arrival of Europeans during that period proves to be highly influential in Hawaiian history. The story ends with how the grip of that kingdom slowly but surely, was slipping away from the native Hawaiians by the third generation after the founding of the Kingdom.

Interestingly, the author himself appears not to noticed this trend since unlike the reader, he doesn't have the benefit of hindsight after the fact. But the book clearly revealed at an alarming rate, how native people of Hawaii and their rulers were slowly losing control of their kingdom. Ironically, the introduction of Christianity led to this situation and that fact was probably overlook by the author because he is a devout Christian himself so he couldn't exactly connect the dots.

The book tried hard to explained all the positive things that the kingdom have done toward their people in their effort to "modernized" and Christianized their people. The author point out the misbehavior of the Hawaiian people prior to the white influence. However, due to European and American imperial powers, rampant diseases and short-sighted policies of Hawaiian rulers, in hindsight, Hawaiian Kingdom appears to be doom. After reading this book, I am now no longer really surprised how the Kingdom of Hawaii fell in the end, over 25 years after this book was completed. The end was long time coming and from this book, any reader can read with hindsight that there was no way to save this kingdom from inevitable annexation by some imperial power sooner or later.

It was also interesting to read how ownership of Hawaiian lands were never in the powers of her people. Most of the lands were controlled by royalty and by the local chiefs who make up a very small percentage of the Hawaiian population.

This book come highly recommended to anyone who is interested in the history of Hawaiian Kingdom and how it slowly fell into ruins.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Definitive Work, July 15, 2011

By 

Dr Benjamin - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii (Hardcover)

Although today there are scholars who question the conclusions and versions of history and genealogy, as told by Kamakau, this is still a seminal work for those interested in the rich and multi-layered history of Hawaii. It also provides a basis for comparison because at the time Kamakau was writing his newspaper articles which form the basis of this book, Hawaii was undergoing considerable change on many fronts and much of the learning of old and the native scholar priests who were entrusted to hand it on within an oral tradition which had such great respect for knowledge, had been "lost". There are still many archival resources and other resources retained within families which have never been translated or shared and so, in a sense, there is still much waiting to be re-discovered. Again, this is very typical of other parts of Polynesia, especially Aotearoa/New Zealand.