In 1893 a small group of white planters and missionary descendants backed by the United States overthrew the Kingdom of Hawai‘i and established a government modeled on the Jim Crow South. In Nation Within Tom Coffman tells the complex history of the unsuccessful efforts of deposed Hawaiian queen Lili‘uokalani and her subjects to resist annexation, which eventually came in 1898. Coffman describes native Hawaiian political activism, the queen's visits to Washington, D.C., to lobby for independence, and her imprisonment, along with hundreds of others, after their aborted armed insurrection. Exposing the myths that fueled the narrative that native Hawaiians willingly relinquished their nation, Coffman shows how Americans such as Theodore Roosevelt conspired to extinguish Hawai‘i's sovereignty in the service of expanding the United States' growing empire.

These are among the records seized by order of Republic of Hawaii officials in 1895 with the intent of obtaining evidence that she had prior knowledge of the 1895 counterrevolution.

"The Queen and I will be a very important contribution to historical and political literature on early twentieth century Hawai'i. But through its intensely personal narrative, it could have an even greater impact on the way people look at history. Sydney Iaukea weaves archival information into a story about a well-known historical figure while demonstrating the impact of these archival voices on herself. In this way she binds herself to her ancestor and allows him to speak through her, showing how an ancient value can be a new methodology for Native writers in indigenous studies." —Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwo’ole Osorio, author of Dismembering Lahui: A History of the Hawaiian Nation to 1887 “Raised in Maui’s housing projects, Sydney Iaukea discovers as an adult that she is the direct descendent of Curtis P. Iaukea, a prominent statesman and trusted adviser to Queen Lili’uokalani, the Hawaiian Kingdom’s last ruling monarch. In this courageous work, she documents her dual quest to recover her lost lineage and her ancestor’s historical importance. Revealing the continuity between public and private, personal and historical, Sydney Iaukea’s compelling narrative brings her readers face-to-face with Lili’uokalani during the tragic days of her overthrow.” —Mary Palevsky, author of Atomic Fragments: A Daughter's Questions “For those of us born and raised in Hawai'i, Sydney Iaukea's work sheds light on a period of time about which we still know too little, the overthrow of Hawai’i’s sovereign government and its forcible annexation to the U.S. This is a compelling narrative, driven by the mystery of a girl growing up poor, unaware of her distinguished lineage. How could this disconnect have occurred? Through the exploration of memories embedded in the landscape, Iaukea ultimately links displacement, dispossession, and familial strife to Hawai'i's troubled history with the U.S. Iaukea is to be commended for her honest and open heart.” —Matthew M. Hamabata, Executive Director, The Kohala Center

The history of Hawaii may be said to be the story of arrivals -- from the eruption of volcanoes on the ocean floor 18,000 feet below to the first hardy seeds that over millennia found their way to the islands, and the confused birds blown from their migratory routes. Early Polynesian adventurers sailed across the Pacific in double canoes. Spanish galleons en route to the Philippines and British navigators in search of a Northwest Passage were soon followed by pious Protestant missionaries, shipwrecked sailors, and rowdy Irish poachers escaped from Botany Bay -- all wanderers washed ashore. This is true of many cultures, but in Hawaii, no one seems to have left. And in Hawaii, a set of myths accompanied each of these migrants -- legends that shape our understanding of this mysterious place. Susanna Moore pieces together the story of late-eighteenth-century Hawaii -- its kings and queens, gods and goddesses, missionaries, migrants, and explorers -- a not-so-distant time of abrupt transition, in which an isolated pagan world of human sacrifice and strict taboo, without a currency or a written language, was confronted with the equally ritualized world of capitalism, Western education, and Christian values.

The stories of Kauai's ruling chiefs were passed from generation to generation in songs and narratives recited by trained storytellers either formally at the high chief's court or informally at family gatherings. Their chronology was ordered by a ruler's genealogy, which, in the case of the pua alii (flower of royalty), was illustrious and far reaching and could be traced to one of the four great gods of Polynesia--Käne, Kü, Lono, and Kanaloa. In these legends, Hawaiians of old sought answers to the questions "Who are we?" "Who are our ancestors and where do they come from?" "What lessons can be learned from their conduct?" Nä Pua Alii o Kauai presents the stories of the men and women who ruled the island of Kauai from its first settlement to the final rebellion against Kamehameha I's forces in 1824. Only fragments remain of the nearly two-thousand-year history of the people who inhabited Kauai before the coming of James Cook in 1778. Now scattered in public and private archives and libraries, these pieces of Hawaii's precontact past were recorded in the nineteenth century by such determined individuals as David Malo, Samuel Kamakau, and Abraham Fornander. All known genealogical references to the Kauai alii nui (paramount chiefs) have been gathered here and placed in chronological order and are interspersed with legends of great voyages, bitter wars, courageous heroes, and passionate romances that together form a rich and invaluable resource.