Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian Hating & Empire Building

Customer Reviews:

A work of incredible historical significance........1998-12-04

"To all appearances," wrote Richard Drinnon, "it all began innocently enough with a first victim" (Indian-Hating 35). Indeed, in Drinnon's 'Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian-Hating and Empire-Building,'those first victims finally have the chance to tell their story through the records of their conquerors. From John Endicott's war on the Niantics and Pequots, to the horrors of the My Lai massacre, Drinnon illustrates, with passion, power and unrelenting wit, how Indian-hating in the Americas became a national pastime, and how that same hate was turned against the native populations of the Phillipines and Southeast Asia. A tremendous feat of scholarship that should not be missed.

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The truth hurts...
A bad, evil "Blame America First" review--but it's more accurate than Gibson.
I Can't Stand Gibson, and I'm Conservative!
Interesting but...
Read, Learn, Think

Hating America: The New World Sport
John Gibson
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0060760516
Release Date: 2005-04-05

Book Description

John Gibson is one of the Fox News Channel's most outspoken personalities. Now, as the aftershocks of the war in Iraq reverberate around the world, Gibson exposes the outrageous tenor of anti-American sentiment filling newsprint and airwaves beyond our borders and how disagreements over policy have mushroomed into poisonous hatred.

"I loathe America . . . and what it has done to Iraq and the rest of the helpless world."
—Margaret Drabble, British novelist

From the "Arab street" to the halls of even the most historically friendly foreign governments, extreme anti-Americanism has grown disturbingly pervasive throughout the world since the shell-shocking moment of 9/11. Over the year that followed, Gibson writes, "I began to watch the overseas press with a morbid fascination punctuated by bursts of outrage. The things that were being said about America and Americans were marked by an off-the-charts level of venom, a scandalous parade of mistaken assumptions, an endless font of suspicion, mistrust, and the promulgation of outright, willful lies. The viciousness of commentary on America was breathtaking."

"Damn Americans. Hate those bastards."
--Carolyn Parrish, Canadian parliament member

And, as Gibson traces, the hate speech has gone well beyond the usual suspects in the Middle East, infecting our erstwhile allies in Europe, Asia, and even Canada. British Prime Minister Tony Blair complained that "some of the rhetoric I hear used about America is more savage than some of the rhetoric I hear about Saddam and the Iraqi regime." Presumptuous Belgian officials attempted to bring American officials up on war-crimes charges. And special hatred was reserved for President George W. Bush, whom one Australian newspaper dismissed as "the village idiot."

As America defends its security in the ongoing war on terror, Gibson argues, we must be prepared to face this growing tide of resentment abroad, which will only result in serious consequences for the haters themselves. For the anti-Americans, he argues, would "like us to forget that those who hate us may eventually try to kill us -- because they now know that we will never allow that to happen without exacting a price on those who would attempt it."

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""I loathe America . . . and what it has done to Iraq and the rest of the helpless world.""
—Margaret Drabble, British novelist

From the ""Arab street"" to the halls of even the most historically friendly foreign governments, extreme anti-Americanism has grown disturbingly pervasive throughout the world since the shell-shocking moment of 9/11. Over the year that followed, Gibson writes, ""I began to watch the overseas press with a morbid fascination punctuated by bursts of outrage. The things that were being said about America and Americans were marked by an off-the-charts level of venom, a scandalous parade of mistaken assumptions, an endless font of suspicion, mistrust, and the promulgation of outright, willful lies. The viciousness of commentary on America was breathtaking.""

""Damn Americans. Hate those bastards.""
--Carolyn Parrish, Canadian parliament member

And, as Gibson traces, the hate speech has gone well beyond the usual suspects in the Middle East, infecting our erstwhile allies in Europe, Asia, and even Canada. British Prime Minister Tony Blair complained that ""some of the rhetoric I hear used about America is more savage than some of the rhetoric I hear about Saddam and the Iraqi regime."" Presumptuous Belgian officials attempted to bring American officials up on war-crimes charges. And special hatred was reserved for President George W. Bush, whom one Australian newspaper dismissed as ""the village idiot.""

As America defends its security in the ongoing war on terror, Gibson argues, we must be prepared to face this growing tide of resentment abroad, which will only result in serious consequences for the haters themselves. For the anti-Americans, he argues, would ""like us to forget that those who hate us may eventually try to kill us -- because they now know that we will never allow that to happen without exacting a price on those who would attempt it.

Customer Reviews:

The truth hurts..........2006-07-05

...for those whose hatred and envy of America pours from every column they write and every protest they attend.

John Gibson makes references to several countries in this book, which while basically an extended op ed piece, as most op ed pieces do, it brings facts together to present an opinion. In this case, the opinion is that other countries are jealous, envious, and simply don't understand America or Americans.

I have had experience regarding the media in many of the countries Gibson refers to. Growing up in New Hampshire, I was regularly exposed to the French language media of Canada. I also read media from Britain and France on a regular basis. While I admit to not regularly following Belgium due to its insignificance, my experience with Belgians is in complete accord with the comments made by Gibson in this book.

Unfortunately, as Gibson accurately indicates, while Europeans claim to understand America and Americans, they simply do not. Like many around the world, they base their impressions of America on Hollywood movies and their own warped media presentations of the United States. People who have actually lived amongst Americans tend to have a different point of view and regard Americans as kind, considerate, hard working, and helpful. Europeans also don't understand the sea change that has occurred in American public opinion since September 11th. They also fail to comprehend the importance of faith among Americans, not only among Protestants, but also among Catholics like myself.

Finally, as one who lives in a country that is most certainly NOT anti-American, another parallel Gibson makes is readily apparant. The countries of Eastern Europe generally sided with the United States. They recognize the role the United States played in their recent liberation from the yoke of Soviet Communism. I live in a country (Taiwan) that has been a democracy for an even shorter time (ten years), and relies upon American help against a much larger foe that one day hopes to end its liberties. One must find it interesting that those who hate America either don't have such liberties, or have had them for so long, that they take them for granted. Those who love America the most are those whose liberties are young enough for most of the population to remember what it was like NOT to have them.

A bad, evil "Blame America First" review--but it's more accurate than Gibson........2006-02-02

If you're intrigued to know why "hating America" has become a new world sport, I'd reccomend skipping this synthesis of faux emotional jargon and checking books such as "Blowback" by Chalmers Johnson and "Killing Hope" by Bill Blum. Hell, go the route of what someone intelligent would do, and get it from the horse's mouth itself: Find the compilation of Osama bin Laden's statements. That ought to clue one in to what causes scorn for the Stars & Stripes, and real genuine hatred in the form of bombs as opposed to snide jokes and such.

What Gibson seems to propose is that the empire--yes, empire--that is largely dominant and at the top of the food chain is hated for being the provider. Some reviewers correlate this point of view as well, citing that we have been working to free unfortunate masses for years, at the expense of American lives and money. However, other countries tend to spend more money without the casualty rate of conflicts such as Vietnam, Somalia, and the current Eurasian conflict. A December 2004 report from the OECD cites that European nations donated 43 billion dollars, with the more "giving" US chipping in 19 billion. However, a lengthy list of interventions by the military-industrial complex is indicative of the fact that we do throw more lives into the wood chipper, metaphorically speaking. For a detailed list, look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._foreign_interventions_since_1945 (A lot of this is covered by Blum in both of his anti-empire tomes).

I think, judging by what I have read, that America ends up being hated for its repeated declaration of being the "freest" nation on earth, promoting the end of tyranny and promoting democracy while history tells a different saga. Plain and simple, America's history of imperialism and empire dictate that THEY have a reason to hate us.

Gibson largely proves this point with the statement that the Twin Towers should serve as all the justification the US needs to invade countries like Iraq. Me, I think the Twin Towers should stand for the fact people hate us, and maybe there is something we're doing that needs to be reeled in. Strangely, Gibson's view indicates that indeed, America feels obligated to wield its might like some souped-up thug and shouldn't have to bow down to anyone.

I also believe in a lot of ways, America's naivete regarding the rest of the world contributes to a lot of the problem. The fact that our citizenry go about their merry days, oblivious to the fact that the shoes and socks on our feet are made by people who work in hellish conditions, and to keep it that way, will stay ignorant of this fact. Tell me why, if we are the pinnacle of world aid, why we continue to import goods made by slaveshops, continue to deny financial backing to malnourished and indigent nationalities in the African continent, and wage conflict incessantly with a multitude of enemies we tend to consort with (Dictators, terrorists, and drugs are obvious examples).

And of course, the naivete is best exemplified with another crusade of Herr Gibson: "the War on Christmas." Too often, our populace is brainwashed with things that don't matter, or are inconsequential: James Frey's lying memoirs, Oprah's Book Club, sports, "Joe Millionaire," Lindsay Lohan, and other names that breed mediocrity and discourage free thought. Our culture is indicative of a thorazine-addled insanity ward subject, one that is so doped up that they are oblivious to the suffering of so many.

Really, I think with a mindset like his, John Gibson won't be able to accurately detail why America ended up on the black list. After all, the War on Christmas and partisan hackery takes priority over talking about why they really hate us.

Skip this one. Trust me, your brain will thank you for it later.

I Can't Stand Gibson, and I'm Conservative! .......2006-01-02

I'm conservative, OK? But Gibson is one of VERY FEW conservative writers that I can't tolerate. Why? Well, first off, he is a TV PERSONALITY and NOT a writer. It really irks me that someone like him gets book deals, despite having no talent, writing style, etc. Secondly, John Gibson gives all conservatives a bad name. He has an axe to grind 24/7, he spreads fear and paranoia in a way that few other pundits do. He is waging a perpetual war on HATERS of AMERICA, instead of reminding people what's great about this country.

The best way to deal with critics of America is not to attack them, but prove them wrong. Instead of this drivel, read Dinesh D'Souza's What's so Great About America. It's a CONSERVATIVE BOOK and it will remind you why America is great, unlike this book, which only reminds us that we are hated. Even worse, I think Gibson's claims are exaggerated.

Interesting but..........2005-12-09

I really find this book very enjoyable to read as it is magnificently detailed, well argued, finely structured and drives home its point rather well. However, there is a rather significant problem that could be this books undoing all together... There. Is. Not. One. Single. Footnote. In. The. Entire. Book. The book uses proof substitutes on EVERY SINGLE PAGE, there is rarely anytime if any that he'll tell us where he got the quotes he did.

I honestly don't think he is a liar nor am I saying he is one, but when he lets us have no means of finding the information he did and let us come to our own conclusions then what is he hiding exactly? To give him some credit, to list a footnote each and every time he mentioned a quote would've been pretty dang extraordinarily tedious. But that leaves us with the problem if he took some quotes out of context or maybe some of the quotes never existed at all.

There's definitely jealousy and envy across the world against the United States, many of them unjustified but there are some bad things we did as well. We supported many dictators who brutally oppressed peaceful protesters, forcing these protesters basically to become terrorists or otherwise be subjected to a cruel government. We HAVE helped create terrorists, but the grand majority of terrorists are Islamist radicals who have no intention or have had any intention for peace except for a temporary means of cease fire to rearm and reorganize themselves. They have repeatably said and it is justified in the Qu'ran that they are to kill all the infidels, they are religious fanatics.

Whether people like it or not, we are the best country so far in this world because we are a beacon of peace, liberty and freedom. People are able to rise and fall to their own accord, you're able to pursue what makes you happy as long as it is in reasonable means and each human being is treated by law with dignity. And because of this, many people are jealous and simply lash out at us. However, as mentioned before we have made severe faults and those same people love to concentrate on the exceptions and not the rule in order to justify hating America.

Read, Learn, Think.......2005-11-28

I have been wondering WHY our supposed allies despise us and this book offers some answers. It provides great background information to give perspective on the issues. The author gives his interpretations, but there are numerous quotes from the main characters (and many other sources) so readers can draw their own conclusions.

The Publishers Weekly Editorial Review reduces the book to nothing more than the author's opinions. That's not accurate. The quotes are the key to validity, along with historical facts. Read what numerous players have said (in their words) and done, then make up your own mind.

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Some good material about a genuine issue.
Scholarly but engaging study
A More Timid ..."It's not our fault"
At first interesting, then merely repetitive
The chronicle of a timeless obsession

Hating America: A History
Barry Rubin , and Judith Colp Rubin
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0195167732

Book Description

In the early twenty-first century, the world has been seized by one of the most intense periods of anti-Americanism in history. Reviled as an imperialist power, an exporter of destructive capitalism, an arrogant crusader against Islam, and a rapacious over-consumer casually destroying the planet, it seems that the United States of America has rarely been less esteemed in the eyes of the world. In such an environment, one can easily overlook the fact that people from other countries have, in fact, been hating America for centuries. Going back to the day of Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin, Americans have long been on the defensive. Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin here draw on sources from a wide range of countries to track the entire trajectory of anti-Americanism. Most significantly, they identify how anti-Americanism evolved over time. In the 18th century, the newfound land was considered too wild and barbaric to support human society. No one, the argument went, could actually live there. Animals brought from Europe, one French commentator claimed, shrunk in size and power. Native Americans too were "small and feeble," lacking "body hair, beard and ardor for his female." The very land itself was "permeated with moist and poisonous vapors, unable to give proper nourishment except to snakes and insects." This opinion prevailed through most of the 19th century, with Keats even invoking the lack of nightingales as symptomatic of just how unlovely and unlivable a place this America was. As the young nation came together at the beginning of the twentieth century and could no longer be easily dismissed as a failure, its very success became cause for suspicion. The American model of populist democracy, the rise of mass culture, the spread of industrialization-all confirmed that America was now a viral threat that could destabilize the established order in Europe. After the paroxysm of World War II, the worst fears of anti-Americanists were realized as the United States became one of the two most powerful nations in the world. Then, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, America became the sole superpower it is today, and the object of global suspicion and scorn. With this powerful work, the Rubins trace the paradox that is America, a country that is both the most reviled and most envied land on earth. In the end, they demonstrate, anti-Americanism has often been a visceral response to the very idea-as well as both the ideals and policies--of America itself, its aggressive innovation, its self-confidence, and the challenge it poses to alternative ideologies.

Customer Reviews:

Some good material about a genuine issue........2006-06-07

This powerful book characterizes hatred of America. We see some of the aspects of this hatred, including finding fault with America no matter what it does. To many anti-Americans, if we do something, we're meddlesome. If we don't, we are shirking our duty. Either way, we're arrogant, aloof, ignorant, fanatical, power-crazed, and so on.

But there is more to it than the blame that gets attributed to a caricature of the United States. There have to some reasons for anti-Americanism that have to do with America, and not with its detractors. And there are.

As we see in this book, those who defend America are often accused of praising America even when it is wrong, and acting as if we are always right. But are our specific policies and our presumed confidence in them really the reasons why those who hate America dislike us? The Rubins make a good case for there being a different primary cause.

We draw the ire of many anti-Americans simply for being ourselves and doing well. And while we Americans often criticize ourselves when we make mistakes, we do so far less frequently when we do things well. That is why we can appear to others to act as if we are right all the time: when they dislike what we do, it is often because we know we're doing something positive. As the Rubins say, quoting Bernard-Henri Levy, "...Anti-American sentiment we see today, not only in Europe but in the world at large, hates not what is bad in America but what is good ... what they hate is democracy. They hate sexual freedom and the rights of women. They hate tolerance. They hate the separation of religion and state. They hate modernity."

Obviously, one could argue that these attributes of America are not always totally positive. But they are an important constituent of a very successful society. And the Rubins point out the attraction to others, both of such a society and of the success of that society.

Some reviewers feel that anti-Americanism has to have more to do with American policies. But I feel the Rubins have made a very good case for this not being the main problem. Obviously, one can unthinkingly claim that America is always right. But our society is more than willing to look at itself. Those who always admit to American misdeeds, even when we are falsely accused, are, in my opinion, no better than those who never admit to being wrong.

I think the authors have made some excellent points, and I like the material about anti-Americanism from earlier times.

I recommend this book.

Scholarly but engaging study.......2006-06-04

This illuminating book investigates the history and nature of anti-Americanism in a scholarly but entertaining manner. It proves wrong both the argument that the policies of the USA provoke hatred and the one that claims envy of liberty and democracy as the root cause. Anti-Americanism in fact preceded the founding of the USA.

The concept is defined as containing some or all of the following: blaming the USA for all the evils of the world, huge exaggeration of the imperfections in and a false depiction of American society and distortions about US policy. These are accompanied by an irrational hatred and wild contradictions in their articulation.

Different chapters examine various historical stages of anti-Americanism, while others look at this phenomenon in specific regions like the Middle East and Latin America. A chapter is devoted to those types that are promoted by oppressive collectivist ideologies like communism and fascism.

The book provides evidence of the weird negative perceptions of the USA held by many famous European artists and intellectuals down the ages, including, Hegel, Kant, Sigmund Freud, George Bernard Shaw, French scientist the Comte de Buffon, French philosopher Voltaire and French politician Talleyrand.

At first, these European intellectuals considered the natural environment of the new world as inferior. Later they found fault with the people who were classless and had no reverence for aristocracy. The 3rd phase started when America became a powerful player on the world stage.

In the 20th century, new varieties were propagated by the totalitarian regimes of Europe. While the Cold War lasted, the phenomenon was somewhat subdued in Western Europe because of the Soviet threat, but it returned with a vengeance after the collapse of the evil empire.

The main proponents of anti-Americanism are intellectuals who see American culture as undermining their own influence or posing a challenge to their own societies. They are successful in spreading this propaganda because of their preponderance in academia and the media.

It is no coincidence that France, with its deeply entrenched anti-Semitism, also has the most prominent history of anti-Americanism. These evil notions go hand in hand as the authors point out. In essence, they are manifestations of hatred for Judeo-Christian civilization.

Other informative books on this subject include Anti-Americanism by Jean Francois Revel, Understanding Anti-Americanism by Paul Hollander, The Anti-Chomsky Reader by David Horowitz and Peter Collier, Hating America by John Gibson, Sinisterism by Bruce Walker and Unholy Alliance by David Horowitz.

A More Timid ..."It's not our fault".......2005-04-07

And I suggest anyone reading this take it with a grain of salt.
The opening disclaimer of what is and is not "anti-americanism" is nice, but definitions coming from Israelis does raise the hairs on the back on my neck since there has been such a concerted effort by some Israelis to seperate American from American. Not to mention the effort to seperate America from every one in the world except...guess who?...Israel.
I gave it two stars from being not totally overt in the popular gimmick of .."everyone hates you and even some Americans hate America but...drum role...it's not because of what you do, it's because your rich and free.

If you like your propaganda served straight up, bypass this book...on the other hand if you like served with umbrellas and a cherry on top this is for you.

At first interesting, then merely repetitive.......2005-02-28

The preface states, "This book in no way seeks to suggest that all criticism of America constitutes anti-Americanism or is invalid." It then defines the content as being restricted to
anti-American views of non-Americans who may have a justifiable opposition to US actions, but that these differences of opinion are not the root cause for prejudice against America.

The early chapters were entertaining and the explaination given that the US was a threat to the established order of other countries is certainly accurate. To keep repeating the same theme, fear and jealousy of the US, in each chapter caused me to loose my enthusiasm.

As the book entered our modern times, I felt that the authors should have discussed in more detail how US policies brought about anti-Americanism rather than continuing to use the above mentioned fear/jealousy rationale.

I anticipated a read that would help me better understand the world's attitude of us which in a small way it did. I was disappointed that we are portrayed more as victims of propaganda, a continually misunderstood nation that bears no responsiblity for its image.

The chronicle of a timeless obsession.......2005-01-07

It was the humorist Art Buchwald who captured, in 1957, the American predicament; following a survey on what made people dislike America, he concluded: "If Americans would stop spending money, talking loudly in public places, telling the British who won the war, adopt a pro-colonial policy, back future British expeditions to Suez, stop taking oil out of the Middle East, stop chewing gum, ... move their bases out of England, settle the desegregation problem in the South ... put the American woman in her proper place, and not export Rock n' Roll, and speak correct English, the tension between the two countries might ease."

Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin have written an excellent book on what appears to be a timeless obsession -- hating America. What emerges most strongly from their narrative is not only how constant the hatred for America has been, but rather how adaptive -- tailored on an America that was emerging and marginal, to growing and influential, to powerful and omnipresent. This mutating anti-Americanism, always new and always old, has been passed down from the birth of the republic to the present day.

The early forms of anti-Americanism, the Rubins write, revolved around the European belief that the North American habitat was unwelcoming to civilization, producing inferior animals and inferior humans. While this took time to recede, the anti-American tide soon took issue with American manners, intellect, and social organization. Only in the twentieth century can there be a trace of hating America for what it does, rather than what it is; and even then, it is never fully convincing.

The themes that emerge most strongly from the book is how Europeans we born with a fear of America -- a fear that its democratic politics would infest their continent, a fear that its dynamic society would pose an alternative to their own, a fear that their people who be magnetized to the American sociopolitical and economic model at the expense of the European one.

If fear is one word that comes to mind when reading this book, impossibility is another -- the impossibility of Americans being loved. Much of the anti-American sentiment in France and the Soviet Union was hardly affected by America's assistance to those countries in World War II. America has been dubbed as infidel and fundamentalist, isolationist and omnipotent, naïvely optimistic and crudely calculating. Time and again, America has been charged with things it did not do or for things that others were more guilty of. Why has there been no enduring anti-Britishism, anti-Frenchism, anti-Russianism, or anti-Germanism?

The answer to this question lies as much with the nature of the American experiment and the character of its society as with anything America does in the world. What people dislike about America is what is good about it, rather than what is bad: its optimism, dynamism, practicality, diversity, tolerance. If this is so, then the American hopes for reversing this age-old obsession seem futile. For however the intensity of anti-Americanism in some places varies with American actions, its underlying appeal is timeless -- the product of political forces who fear America, what it stands for, and what it might mean for them.

The Hunt for Willie Boy: Indian-Hating and Popular Culture

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The Hunt for Willie Boy: Indian-Hating and Popular Culture
James A. Sandos , and Larry E. Burgess
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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In the popular imagination, the clash of Native American nations with Europeans is seen as a series of battles and massacres, of large events. History operates on much smaller increments, as Sandos and Burgess demonstrate in their study of an incident in California in 1909. A Chemehuevi Indian, Willie Boy, killed another Chemehuevi and kidnapped his daughter, whom he later also killed. Indian-on-Indian crime did not attract much attention in those days, but white law-enforcement officials decided to make a lesson of Willie Boy, whose "violence exemplified a 'return to savagery' of a supposedly assimilated Indian." Hunted by a huge posse, Willie Boy died by his own hand. But during the manhunt, sheriffs removed dozens of Indian families from their oases "for their own protection." Those families would never return.

Hating America: A History.(Book review): An article from: The Historian

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Hating America: A History.(Book review): An article from: The Historian
Dominick Cavallo
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000MX6YFK
Release Date: 2007-01-24

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Historian, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2006. The length of the article is 533 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Hating America: A History.(Book review)
Author: Dominick Cavallo
Publication: The Historian (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 68 Issue: 1 Page: 201(2)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

First published in 1988, Islands in a Far Sea offers a comprehensive environmental history of Hawai`i. This thoroughly revised edition begins with an up-to-date account of the geological formation and shaping of the Islands, their colonization by plants and animals, and the patterns of ecology and evolution that unfolded in nurturing seas and on breathtaking landscapes.

Beginning some 1,500 years ago, Hawai`i was one of the last Edens to be exploited by human beings, and its transformation has been among the most rapid. Seeking to improve life, humans have grossly altered the living nature of the Islands from the coral reefs to the volcanic summits. Since the first arrival of Polynesian canoes, Hawai`i has been a venue of accelerating extinction and today leads the United States in the rate of permanent loss of native plants and animals.

This book tells the story of human interaction with Hawai`i's native landscapes and rich biological heritage. The! author's accessible language allows readers to grasp basic geological and biological principles and to understand the perhaps surprising vulnerability of Hawaiian ecosystems—which have coevolved with volcanoes—to human impact. Islands in a Far Sea includes many well-documented historical examples of such impacts, featuring growth and greed, fears and foibles as humans confronted endemic nature in Hawai`i. Citing a large array of sources, the author makes it possible for interested readers to probe more deeply the changes in natural systems that have ensued on all of the Hawaiian Islands. To date the result has been the tragic reduction of a unique and benign biota. However, the book holds out hope that current efforts to protect what is left of Hawai`i''s flora and fauna in their remaining wild settings may yet succeed.

The theme of conservation pervades Islands in a Far Sea, as does a sense of urgency. Without intense care and effort, what is natural about ! Hawai`i will soon pass into history. Anyone with an interest in conserving the native life of the land will come away from this work with both an informed awareness of the problem and, hopefully, a resolve to promote human stewardship of Hawai`i's natural identity.

Customer Reviews:

Professor pulls no punches.......2006-11-21

I bet "Islands in a Far Sea" is the first book published by a taxpayer-supported public university press to call the taxpayers -- or at least the ones ranching on the Big Island -- "juvenile yahoos."
Hawaii Pacific University professor of biology John Culliney lets it all hang out in his updated review of the natural history of "the world's finest natural laboratory for the study of evolution." Subtitled "The Fate of Nature in Hawaii," it makes for gloomy reading.
Although a strong environmentalist, zoologist Culliney at least does not buy into the ohia-hugging claptrap that decorates all too much writing about Hawaii's natural history. Ohia is the native name for Metrosideros polymorpha, the characteristic and unique tree of Hawaiian rain forests.)
Nor does he fall for the PC notion that pre-Contact Hawaiians loved the aina (land) so much that they lived in placid harmony with it. "Humans would shape the nature of the islands far more than they would be shaped by it," Culliney writes. "The nature of Hawaii was far from pristine when the Europeans and Americans began to influence the islands."
Overall, Culliney brings tradewind freshness to a field of writing clogged with sappy romanticism.
He is virtually unique among nature writers -- whether mere enthusiasts or professional ecologists -- in failing to rave about our islands' "rich volcanic soil." "Rich volcanic soil" is a cliche that was originally and accurately used to describe the slopes of Mt. Etna in Sicily. Hawaiian volcanoes are different, and Hawaii's soil is good for little but to hold plants out of the ocean.
Citing work by Peter Vitousek of Stanford University, Culliney points out that older islands, like fabulously green Kauai, would be scarcely able to support plant life, for lack of phosphorous, if it weren't for dust blown over from the steppes of Central Asia.
But if Culliney casts a more than commonly beady eye on the more inane claims of the greens, he is far from contented with what's been going on here.
Except for humans themselves and their fire, nothing has harmed native plants and animals more than big grazing mammals. And no one group arouses Culliney more than hunters. He calls their contrived arguments to continue, even enhance, the damage "neolithic eco-thinking."
Even real estate developers finish second to hunters in Culliney's rogues' gallery, though not by much.
For a reader wanting a compendious summary of the history and present prospects of Hawaii's natural life, "Islands in a Far Sea" is hard to beat. So much has changed, even in the 18 years since the first edition came out.
Not only have new kinds of assaults on native life been introduced -- noisy coqui frogs from Puerto Rico, for example -- but an enormous amount of fresh research has been published on these already much-studied islands.
The discoveries of unsuspected species of flightless birds -- probably eaten to extinction by the first Polynesians, who found little here in the way of vegetable food -- were just one of a large number of surprises brought to light in recent years.

A serious and scholarly book on Hawaiian natural history.......2006-07-13

Islands In A Far Sea: The Fate Of Nature In Hawai'i, by John L. Culliney, is not a trivial, easy to read, shallow review of neat places and critters in Hawai'i. Rather, it is an in-depth, sobering, and comprehensive review of what has been, what is now, and what may be, here in Hawai'i.

The book covers many aspects of the physical and biological world of these "islands in a far sea." Let me just comment on three aspects of Culliney's book.

1. Sea turtles: this is not a book "on" sea turtles. Nevertheless, Culliney dedicates one full chapter to sea turtle and monk seal biology and conservation issues. There are insights in this chapter that were new to me. Again, this was not just a "sea turtles are neat, they lay eggs at French Frigate Shoals, the population is recovering, etc." coverage.

2. Hawaiian tree snails: This chapter is very interesting, and again contained material new to me. I was particularly interested in the genus Achatinella (on O'ahu), its conservation, management, and history, since my ohana was involved in bringing cannibal snails to O'ahu, and I've visited with folk working on these snails on a protected ridge in Makua Valley, tending to the fence protecting their habitat from feral goats and collecting tissue samples for DNA analysis from the snail "feet."

3. The geological history of the islands: Culliney goes beyond just restating the "hotspot" theory of island formation, and goes into detail about what happens after the islands quit "growing."

All in all, this is a readable, scholarly reference book and textbook. All people serious about understanding Hawaiian natural history should read it.

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