Colonizing Hawai'i (Paperback)

by Sally Engle Merry (Author) "IN OCTOBER 1846 William Little Lee arrived in Hawai'i after a long and arduous sea passage around Cape Horn..." (more)
Key Phrases: immigrant sugar workers, moe kolohe, missionary advisors, United States, Native Hawaiians, New England (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"This is an important study which details a crucial (and often ignored) chapter in American legal history. It stands to make an important contribution to the anthropology of law, to the history of colonial legality, and to the methodology of ethnography in the archives. -- Annelise Riles, Northwestern University School of Law

This is a work of exceptional merit: substantively innovative and valuable, interpretively cogent and insightful, stylistically lucid and engaging. It reads very well as a significant account of the historical Hawaiian situation and as a major contribution to a multidimensional examination of colonial law and, especially, of a crucial and fairly singular American colonial enterprise. -- Don Brenneis, University of California, Santa Cruz

Review
This is an important study which details a crucial (and often ignored) chapter in American legal history. It stands to make an important contribution to the anthropology of law, to the history of colonial legality, and to the methodology of ethnography in the archives.
(Annelise Riles, Cornell University )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 364 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (December 21, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691009325
• ISBN-13: 978-0691009322
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #955,857 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable study and good read, April 21, 2001

By	jackeroo (Kailua, HI United States) - See all my reviews

This book is a valuable study of the colonization of Hawai`i and the role of "law" in the islands' cultural transformation. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a critical understanding of Hawai`i's social, economic and politial dynamics. I particularly benefited from the insights on religion, sexuality and women. Sally Engle Merry provides a good articulation of the inevitable paradoxes facing the Hawaiian Nation in the 19th century vis-a-vis encroaching American imperialism and colonization. "Colonizing Hawai`i" is also a good read in the context of critical legal studies.

4 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A great disappointment, March 16, 2001

By	Sanford J. Langa (Kahului, Hawaii USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Colonizing Hawai'I (Hardcover)

The blurb for this book suggests a scholarly analysis of the effect of law on an emerging culture. It is anything but. It is better described as a muddled attempt to justify the modern political movement that elevates the descendants of 18th century Hawaiians to sacred victimhood enjoyed by Indians and Eskimos. The title should be a warning that this author cannot tell the difference between a colonist and an immigrant. She displays a less than adequate understanding of Hawaiian history and misses the significance of early leaders, both native and immigrant. Queen Kaahumanu, probably the most important force in creating the Hawaiian monarchy, is barely mentioned, and then denigrated as a sort of tool of the Christian missionaries. Sanford Dole, chief justice of the monarchy, head of the provisional government, president of the republic, and governor of the territory, is ignored. The biggest problem with this book is that too many readers will take it seriously.