{"id":8638,"date":"2011-03-22T03:46:49","date_gmt":"2011-03-22T12:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/?p=8638"},"modified":"2011-03-22T03:47:51","modified_gmt":"2011-03-22T12:17:51","slug":"unfamiliar-fishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/?p=8638","title":{"rendered":"“Unfamiliar Fishes”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scott Crawford sent the following email that I wanted to pass along. Sarah Vowell just published a novel entitled “Unfamiliar Fishes”, which is set in Hawai’i. In her dry witty way she exposes America’s “orgy of imperialism” in 1898:<\/p>\n

You gotta watch this…<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.thedailyshow.com\/watch\/mon-march-21-2011\/exclusive—sarah-vowell-extended-interview-pt–1<\/a><\/p>\n

We’ve seen Sarah Vowell on The Daily Show before, and enjoy how she shares history with her dry wit and puts things in ways you can easily relate to.\u00a0 As Jon says, “I laugh, but I learn.”<\/p>\n

Well, now she’s written a book on Hawai’i, “Unfamiliar Fishes”. She describes the “orgy of imperialism” of the summer of 1898. And she nails it. Kekula said when it was over, “that was one
\nof the most comprehensive statements on Hawaii ever presented in such a broad media.” A whole lot of very well-informed, engaged people watch Jon Stewart. And the way she explained it was a
\ntruth that many people probably heard for the first time. A lot of people will read her book.<\/p>\n

She explains the context of the Spanish-American War, the role for Hawaii as “a naval base for our forthcoming invasions,” the missionary family children who “overthrew the Hawaiian queen so as to hand the Hawaiian Islands over to the United States,” mentions the anti-annexation petitions, and compares the joint resolution as “the sort of law New Jersey would use to declare a day Jon Bon Jovi Day.”<\/p>\n

Her video excerpt from the book: http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Qlj2sdEelak<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9781594487873<\/a><\/p>\n

Unfamiliar Fishes<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Sarah Vowell
\n(Riverhead Hardcover, Hardcover, 9781594487873, 256pp.)
\nPublication Date: March 22, 2011<\/p>\n

Description<\/p>\n

From the bestselling author of The Wordy Shipmates, an examination of Hawaii, the place where Manifest Destiny got a sunburn.<\/p>\n

Many think of 1776 as the defining year of American history, when we became a nation devoted to the pursuit of happiness through self-government. In Unfamiliar Fishes, Sarah Vowell\u00a0 argues that 1898 might be a year just as defining, when, in an orgy of imperialism, the United States annexed Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam, and invaded first Cuba, then the Philippines, becoming an international superpower practically overnight.<\/p>\n

Among the developments in these outposts of 1898, Vowell considers the Americanization of Hawaii the most intriguing. From the arrival of New England missionaries in 1820, their goal to\u00a0 Christianize the local heathen, to the coup d’\u00e9tat of the missionaries’ sons in 1893, which overthrew the Hawaiian queen, the events leading up to American annexation feature a cast of
\nbeguiling, and often appealing or tragic, characters: whalers who fired cannons at the Bible-thumpers denying them their God-given right to whores, an incestuous princess pulled between
\nher new god and her brother-husband, sugar barons, lepers, con men, Theodore Roosevelt, and the last Hawaiian queen, a songwriter whose sentimental ode “Aloha ‘Oe” serenaded the first
\nHawaiian president of the United States during his 2009 inaugural parade.<\/p>\n

With her trademark smart-alecky insights and reporting, Vowell lights out to discover the off, emblematic, and exceptional history of the fiftieth state, and in so doing finds America, warts and all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scott Crawford sent the following email that I wanted to pass along. Sarah Vowell just published a novel entitled “Unfamiliar Fishes”, which is set in Hawai’i. In her dry witty way she exposes America’s “orgy of imperialism” in 1898: You gotta watch this… http:\/\/www.thedailyshow.com\/watch\/mon-march-21-2011\/exclusive—sarah-vowell-extended-interview-pt–1 We’ve seen Sarah Vowell on The Daily Show before, and enjoy … <\/p>\n

Continue reading ““Unfamiliar Fishes””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8638"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8638"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8640,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8638\/revisions\/8640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}