Category: History

Disease and Displacement in Nineteenth-Century Hawaii

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Mai LeperaMai Lepera: Disease and Displacement in Nineteenth-Century Hawaii, by Kerri A. Inglis, attempts to recover Hawaiian voices at a significant moment in Hawai‘i’s history. It takes an unprecedented look at the Hansen’s disease outbreak (1865–1900) almost exclusively from the perspective of “patients,” ninety percent of whom were Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian). Using traditional and nontraditional sources, published and unpublished, it tells the story of a disease, a society’s reaction to it, and the consequences of the experience for Hawai‘i and its people.

February 2013 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3635-1 / $24.00 (PAPER)

Choice Magazine’s Outstanding Academic Titles for 2012 Announced

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Each year Choice Magazine, the official publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries, compiles a distinguished list of Outstanding Academic Titles. The following UH Press books were recognized for 2012. A complete list of titles will be available in Choice’s January 2013 issue.

Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook edited by James W. Heisig, Thomas P. Kasulis, and John C. Maraldo

“This massive tome will stand for the forseeable future as the gold standard for comprehensive treatment of all matters of Japanese philosophy. The three editors, all significant names within this small but growing subfield, have assembled an impressive group of established and up-and-coming scholars to translate and provide introductions to each entry, resulting in a readable sourcebook remarkable in both scope and acuity of analysis. . . . Essential.” —Choice (April 2012)

Historical Dictionary of the Indochina War (1945-1954): An International and Interdisciplinary Approach by Christopher E. Goscha

“[This] very useful, high-quality publication is a valuable acquisition for all libraries with reference collections in modern Asian history. . . . Highly recommended.” —Choice (August 2012)

Forrest Mims to Accept ASLI’s Choice Award for History

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Mims-Hawaii'sMaunaLoaAtmospheric Science Librarians International (ASLI) has selected Hawai‘i’s Mauna Loa Observatory: Fifty Years of Monitoring the Atmosphere for the ASLI’s Choice 2012 Award in the History category. The book was praised for its “engaging perspective on the scientists, discoveries, and ground-breaking atmospheric measurements done at Mauna Loa Observatory.”

Author Forrest M. Mims III will attend the official presentation on Wednesday, January 9, 2013 during the American Meteorological Society annual meeting in Austin, Texas. (Mims recently wrote two articles on Dr. Robert Simpson, the founder of the Mauna Loa Observatory, who celebrated his 100th birthday last month.) ASLI’s Choice is an award for the best book of 2012 in the fields of meteorology / climatology / atmospheric sciences. Visit the ASLI website for more information on award criteria and past winners.

Veterans Day Weekend Sale Ends Tomorrow at Noon – 40% Off Select Titles

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UHP Veterans Days Sale 2012

From Thursday, November 8, noon, to Tuesday, November 13, noon (HST), save 40% on these titles at our website:*

*Discounted prices will be visible at website during the sale.

Veterans Day Weekend Sale – 40% Off Select Titles

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UHP Veterans Days Sale 2012

From Thursday, November 8, noon, to Tuesday, November 13, noon (HST), save 40% on these titles at our website:*

*Discounted prices will be visible at website during the sale.

Flash Sale – 4 Days Only

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To celebrate the canonization of Mother Marianne Cope on October 21, we are offering these titles at 40% off at our website from Friday, October 19 (noon HST) to Monday, October 22 (noon HST):

Kalaupapa: A Collective Memory, by Anwei Skinsnes Law: Combining more than 200 hours of interviews with archival documents, including over 300 letters and petitions written by the earliest residents translated from Hawaiian, this monumental work presents at long last the story of Kalaupapa as told by its people. 40% off: $29.40 (cloth); $17.39 (paper)

Almost Heaven: On the Human and Divine, edited by Frank Stewart: This issue of Manoa journal includes the complete play Damien, by Aldyth Morris, and images made at Kalaupapa, Moloka‘i, in the early twentieth century from the collection of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts United States Province. 40% off: $12.00 (paper)

Holy Man: Father Damien of Molokai, by Gavan Daws: “May be the best biography of Damien yet written.” —Library Journal 40% off: $11.39 (paper)

Molokai, by O. A. Bushnell: “Searches the hearts of the doomed and damned with an intense compassion. The author has painted the background of his novel with a knowing brush. . . . A vivid experience for the reader.” —New York Times Book Review 40% off: $14.99 (paper)

Leper Priest of Molokai: The Father Damien Story, by Richard Stewart: “Rather than portraying his subject as a plaster saint, Stewart provides a full-bodied portrait of an inspirational, yet admittedly flawed, human being.” —Booklist 40% off: $17.99 (paper)

Anwei Skinsnes Law, author of “Kalaupapa: A Collective Memory,” attended Saint Marianne’s canonization at the Vatican on October 21, 2012.

CBS Sunday Morning & Other Ukulele News/Reviews

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CBS Sunday Morning interviewed Jim Tranquada on the UH Manoa campus (courtesy of CBS Sunday Morning).

Jim Tranquada, coauthor of The ‘Ukulele: A History, had a minute of fame on the CBS Sunday Morning Show that aired October 14 across the U.S. The entire six-minute segment by reporter Seth Doane and producer Kay Lim featured international uke star Jake Shimabukuro, the Kamaka ‘ukulele factory, and teacher Roy Sakuma (impresario of the annual Ukulele Festival Hawaii). Tranquada shared that the instrument now widely identified as a Hawaiian icon actually was introduced by Portuguese immigrants from the island of Madeira, off the coast of Morocco.

As related news, The ‘Ukulele: A History has received thumbs-up reviews from Library Journal and ForeWord Magazine. The former recommends the book for “any comprehensive music collection (and, really, for any popular music collection),” while the latter calls it “a fascinating musical and social history that not only supports Tranquada and King’s argument for a rehabilitation of the instrument’s image, but also sets the stage for a full-scale ‘ukulele revival.” Read the full reviews:
Library Journal    |   ForeWord

Roughly half a world away, on another island, the “Uke Ireland & Ukuhooley Blog” has posted a comparative review of Tranquada and King’s history with Ian Whitcomb’s recent Ukulele Heroes (Hal Leonard Books). Embedded within that blog post is a video review by Ukester Brown, a ‘ukulele player in Minnesota, who recommends both books, for different reasons. According to the information on the Uke Ireland site, every Saturday there’s a UkuHooley Meetup at the Dun Laoghaire Club in Dublin—perhaps another example of how the ‘ukulele has become an international cultural phenomenon!

Imagination and Authenticity in Chinese Historical Writing

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Reinventing Modern China
Reinventing Modern China: Imagination and Authenticity in Chinese Historical Writing, by Huaiyin Li, offers the first systematic analysis of writings on modern Chinese history by historians in China from the early twentieth century to the present. It traces the construction of major interpretive schemes, the evolution of dominant historical narratives, and the unfolding of debates on the most controversial issues in different periods. Placing history-writing in the context of political rivalry and ideological contestation, Li explicates how the historians’ dedication to faithfully reconstructing the past was compromised by their commitment to an imagined trajectory of history that fit their present-day agenda and served their needs of political legitimation.

October 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3608-5 / $52.00 (CLOTH)

Kalaupapa: A Collective Memory

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KalaupapaBetween 1866 and 1969, an estimated 8,000 individuals—at least 90 percent of whom were Native Hawaiians—were sent to Molokai’s remote Kalaupapa peninsula because they were believed to have leprosy. Unwilling to accept the loss of their families, homes, and citizenship, these individuals ensured they would be accorded their rightful place in history. They left a powerful testimony of their lives in the form of letters, petitions, music, memoirs, and oral history interviews. Kalaupapa: A Collective Memory, by Anwei Skinsnes Law, combines more than 200 hours of interviews with archival documents, including over 300 letters and petitions written by the earliest residents translated from Hawaiian.

September 2012
ISBN 978-0-8248-3636-8 (CLOTH)
ISBN 978-0-8248-3465-4 (PAPER)

Anwei Law will speak about her book and answer questions at Native Books/Na Mea Hawai‘i on Sunday, September 30, 2012, 3-5 pm. A book-signing, informal discussion, and refreshments will follow. In Honolulu Ms. Law will also be at:

  • Hawai‘i Judiciary Center on Wednesday, September 26, noon-1 pm; she will be joined by retired public-interest lawyer and writer Esther Arinaga, who will discuss the late-1800s case of “Republic of Hawaii v. Kapea et al,” which reveals the impact of leprosy and laws pertaining to the disease.
  • Center for Biographical Research, Henke Hall 325, UH-Manoa, on Thursday, September 27, noon-1:15, for the Brown Bag Biography talk “The People of Kalaupapa as Active Participants in Their Own History.”

    Books are not expected to be available at the Hawai‘i Judiciary Center and Center for Biographical Research events.

An American Girl in the Hawaiian Islands – Author Talk at Native Books

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An American Girl
When twenty-three-year-old Carrie Prudence Winter caught her first glimpse of Honolulu from aboard the Zealandia in October 1890, she had “never seen anything so beautiful.” She had been traveling for two months since leaving her family home in Connecticut and was at last only a few miles from her final destination, Kawaiaha’o Female Seminary, a flourishing boarding school for Hawaiian girls. As the daughter of staunch New England Congregationalists, Winter had dreamed of being a missionary teacher as a child and reasoned that “teaching for a few years among the Sandwich Islands seemed particularly attractive” while her fiancé pursued a science degree. During her three years at Kawaiaha’o, Winter wrote often and at length to her “beloved Charlie”; her lively and affectionate letters, excerpted in An American Girl in the Hawaiian Islands, selected and edited by Sandra Bonura and Deborah Day, provide readers with not only an intimate look at nineteenth-century courtship, but also many invaluable details about life in Hawai’i during the last years of the monarchy and a young woman’s struggle to enter a career while adjusting to surroundings that were unlike anything she had ever experienced.

September 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3627-6 / $39.00 (CLOTH)

Sandra Bonura will give a talk on the surprising discovery of Carrie Prudence Winter’s correspondence and photos and share additional insight into the lives of the students and teachers at Kawaiaha‘o Female Seminary during the turbulent years of the overthrow: Sunday, September 23, 3-5 pm, Native Books/Na Mea Hawai‘i, Ward Warehouse. Light refreshments will be served. A limited number of books airflown for this event will be available.

Luke Roberts Interview at New Books in East Asian Studies

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Carla Nappi of the New Books in East Asian Studies podcast calls Performing the Great Peace: Political Space and Open Secrets in Tokugawa Japan “a gracefully-written study of the performance of authority in Tokugawa politics. It is also one of the most thoughtful historical studies that I’ve had the pleasure to read in a long time.” Listen to her interview with author Luke Roberts here.

Conversations with UH Press Authors

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Besides the NPR “Crime in the City” interview with Victoria Kneubuhl that aired August 13, other “talk stories” with UH Press authors took place in the past month:

Hawai‘i Public Radio‘s The Conversation interviewed jazz saxophonist Gabe Baltazar about his memoir, If It Swings, It’s Music. Listen to the  “Book ’em, Gabe-o…with a new autobiography” in the HPR archives for August 7.

Gabe was also featured in the “Old Friends” column that appeared in the August 29 edition of MidWeek, mailed to over 270,000 homes in Hawai‘i. Read the online version here.

On August 27, HPR’s The Conversation caught up with Jim Tranquada at Occidental College to talk about The ‘Ukulele: A History. Listen to the “Madeiran melody maker morphs into a jumping flea…” in the archived show.

The editor of MauiTime interviewed author Tom Coffman about his inspiring new book, I Respectfully Dissent: A Biography of Edward H. Nakamura. Read Coffman’s take on Justice Nakamura’s legacy as a labor attorney and Supreme Court justice in the August 23 cover story, “Standing Alone.”

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