In 1820, American Protestant missionaries from New England began arriving in the Hawaiian Islands. Seventy-eight years later, the United States officially declared the Islands a territory of the United States. In those 78 years, the missionaries were followed by whalers, planters, and workers from around the world to work on the plantations, and the ruling Hawaiian royal family was replaced by a transplanted American elite. This course examines the events that gradually transformed Hawaii from a unique, isolated kingdom in the Pacific to a vital part of the American empire. The class will use Sarah Vowell’s book, Unfamiliar Fishes, as its core text. Ms. Vowell was a contributor and producer for the NPR show, This American Life, and a frequent guest on talk shows, especially The Daily Show. Her five books have been described as funny, quirky, biting histories. Recently, she’s used her unusual voice for characters in animated films, and she is a frequent op-ed columnist for publications such as The New York Times.
Required Book: Vowell, Sarah. Unfamiliar Fishes, Riverhead Books (Penguin). 2011.
