Themes
The underlying theme of these
papers is the issue of social control. We ask: In what ways
did the Euroamerican minority ruling class begin to exercise
control in Hawai'i at the beginning of the Territorial era?
Control can be understood broadly: control of the landscape
through dredging harbors and filling wetlands; control of
people through the development of institutions; control of
knowledge through the medium of the University; control of
the perception of race and ethnicity expressed in
community-sponsored parades, holidays, and celebrations. The
papers are historically located in the Territorial period,
because it remains an under-researched period in the history
of Hawai'i. The historiography of Hawai'i has a tendency to
inexorably toward Statehood, as if that were the inevitable
outcome of the European contact with Native Hawaiians.
Consequently, the history of Hawai'i, particulary for the
period between the Overthrow of the Monarchy and Pearl
Harbor, is fragmented and disjointed, which makes research,
especially for undergraduates, arduous and discouraging.
