![]() ![]() Whalers who will fire cannons at the Bible-thumpers denying them their god-given right to whores. From the arrival of the New England missionaries in 1820, who came to Christianize the local heathen, to the coup d'etat led by the missionaries' sons in 1893, overthrowing the Hawaiian queen, the events leading up to American annexation feature a cast of beguiling if often appalling or tragic characters. Of all the countries the United States invaded or colonized in 1898, Vowell considers the story of the Americanization of Hawaii to be the most intriguing. ![]() In Unfamiliar Fishes, Sarah Vowell argues that 1898 might be a year just as crucial to our nation's identity, when, in an orgy of imperialism, the United States annexed Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam, and invaded Cuba, and then the Philippines, becoming a meddling, self-serving, militaristic international superpower practically overnight. Many think of 1776 as the most defining year of American history, the year we became a nation devoted to the pursuit of happiness through self-government. ![]()
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