Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell

While NPR personality Sarah Vowell finds America’s 1898 annexation of Hawaii morally shaky, she strives for a balanced history of the takeover that even Grover Cleveland called “a miserable business.”

(Riverhead, $26)

“It’s kind of cute when mainland folks discover that Hawaii’s history is more interesting than they thought it would be,” said Burl Burlingame in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. NPR personality Sarah Vowell “dived right in” for the latest of her glib journeys into America’s back files, and she’s even gotten most of her facts right. From Hiram Bingham’s claim in 1820 that he and his fellow missionaries would take Hawaii in a “bloodless conquest for Christ” through Queen Liliuokalani’s last-ditch plea to President William McKinley to grant Hawaii independence, Vowell also shows “a real talent for juicing dry historical themes.” Better yet, she doesn’t make the past into a contest between heroes and villains in which only one side wins.

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