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Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism. By Noenoe K. Silva. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004. x, 260 pp. Cloth, $74.95, ISBN 0-8223-3350-3. Paper, $21.95, ISBN 0-8223-3349-X.)
This slender volume packs quite a punch. Noenoe K. Silva observes that "one of the most persistent and pernicious myths of Hawaiian history is that the Kanaka Maoli (native Hawaiians) passively accepted the erosion of their culture and the loss of their nation" (p. 1). The author argues forcefully that, to the contrary, Hawaiians offered spirited resistance to cultural, social, political, and economic colonization by Americans and other westerners. A revised dissertation, this study relies heavily on careful readings of Hawaiianlanguage newspapers and other Hawaiian-language sources to drive home this point.
Covering the time from Capt....