Compiled and annotated by David W. Forbes Volume 3 comprises entries recording the last years of the rule of Kamehameha III, the reigns of Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V, and Lunalilo, and the first seven years of the Kalakaua era. During this period government was firmly established as a constitutional monarchy; the 1864 constitution of Kamehameha V increased the power of the monarch and remained in effect until 1887. Following the successful negotiation by the Kalakaua government of a reciprocity treaty with the United States in 1875, Hawai'i experienced great prosperity. At the same time, however, it came under increasing economic and social domination by American interests. As in the first two volumes, all books, pamphlets, single-sheet publications, and significant periodical articles have been included. Extensive annotations describe the more than 1,200 works listed, and the exact title, date of publication, size of the volume, collation of pages, number and type of plates and maps, references, and location of copies are given for each publication.

The colorful history of the Hawaiian Islands, since their discovery in 1778 by the great British navigator Captain James Cook, falls naturally into three periods. During the first, Hawaii was a monarchy ruled by native kings and queens. Then came the perilous transition period when new leaders, after failing to secure annexation to the United States, set up a miniature republic. The third period began in 1898 when Hawaii by annexation became American territory. The Hawaiian Kingdom, by Ralph S. Kuykendall, is the detailed story of the island monarchy. In the first volume, "Foundation and Transformation," the author gives a brief sketch of old Hawaii before the coming of the Europeans, based on the known and accepted accounts of this early period. He then shows how the arrival of sea rovers, traders, soldiers of forture, whalers, scoundrels, missionaries, and statesmen transformed the native kingdom, and how the foundations of modern Hawaii were laid. In the second volume, "Twenty Critical Years," the author deals with the middle period of the kingdom's history, when Hawaii was trying to insure her independence while world powers maneuvered for dominance in the Pacific. It was an important period with distinct and well-marked characteristics, but the noteworthy changes and advances which occurred have received less attention from students of history than they deserve. Much of the material is taken from manuscript sources and appears in print for the first time in the second volume. The third and final volume of this distinguished trilogy, "The Kalakaua Dynasty," covers the colorful reign of King Kalakaua, the Merry Monarch, and the brief and tragic rule of his successor, Queen Liliuokalani. This volume is enlivened by such controversial personages as Claus Spreckels, Walter Murray Gibson, and Celso Caesar Moreno. Through it runs the thread of the reciprocity treaty with the United States, its stimulating effect upon the island economy, and the far-reaching consequences of immigration from the Orient to supply plantation labor. The trilogy closes with the events leading to the downfall of the Hawaiian monarchy and the establishment of the Provisional Government in 1893.