Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Archaeology / Anthropology    3. Oceania    4. Social Science    5. Sociology    6. Anthropology    7. Archaeology    8. Australasian & Pacific history    9. Hawaii    10. Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural   

Subjects:  1. 1955-    2. Art    3. Art & Art Instruction    4. Bennett, Gordon,    5. Criticism and interpretation    6. Individual Artist    7. Australia    8. Bennett, Gordon    9. History of art & design styles: from c 1900 -    10. Individual artists    11. Painting & paintings   

Subjects:  1. Australia & New Zealand - General    2. Australia & New Zealand - New Zealand    3. Expeditions & Discoveries    4. First contact with Europeans    5. History    6. History - General History    7. History: World    8. Maori (New Zealand people)    9. Social life and customs    10. Sources    11. United States - State & Local - General    12. Australasian & Pacific history: c 1750 to c 1900    13. History of specific racial & ethnic groups    14. New Zealand   

Subjects:  1. Globalization    2. Historical Geography    3. History - General History    4. International Relations - General    5. Australasian & Pacific history    6. History / Historical Geography    7. International relations    8. North Pacific    9. Political Science-Globalization    10. Political Science-International Relations - General    11. Structural engineering    12. Transport: General Interest   

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Art    3. Art & Art Instruction    4. Art, Australian    5. Australia    6. Criticism    7. Feminism & Feminist Theory    8. Feminism and art    9. Modernism (Art)    10. Women And Art    11. Feminism    12. First World War, 1914-1918    13. History of art & design styles: from c 1900 -    14. Inter-war period, 1918-1939    15. Sculpture & other three-dimensional art forms    16. Second World War, 1939-1945    17. c 1900 - c 1914   

Subjects:  1. 1953-    2. Art    3. Art & Art Instruction    4. Australia    5. Biography    6. Individual Artist    7. Individual Painters - Contemporary    8. MacFarlane, Stewart,    9. Painters    10. History of art & design styles: from c 1900 -    11. Individual artists    12. MacFarlane, Stewart    13. Painting & paintings   

Reviews (2)

A must have Amerika Samoa reference
This book insired me to think about alot of things about the territory, the Pacific region, the United States, and Faleomavaega.This man has done things for American Samoa with regards to the Pacific and U.S.Much of the content of this book can still be applied today in the territory.For Samoans in the U.S.we all have ties back to Amerika Samoa and this book coer a few of the issues to deal with as the transition from traditional cultural vallues to the influence of the modern world is in the balance.My best to Faleomavaega, the United States of America, to all the islands of Samoa, independant, US territory including Manu'a.

Excellent Introduction to America's Little Known Colony
Few Americans know that the United States still owns a relic from the Age of Colonialism below the Equator, and that this "possession" is not faring so well after 101 years of benign neglect. Congressman Faleomavaega is a gifted writer. Few people could cram quite so much information into 142 pages and still have the result highly readable. But it's not a happy story when for 51 years the proud people of American Samoa had their Governor appointed by the US Navy, and then for another 26 years their Governor was always a personal friend of the Secretary of the Interior. Yet the author is basically an optimistic person, and he continually cites the many accomplishments of Asian and Pacific Island Americans, and the success of local initiatives in agricultural development, commercial policy, and educational achievement.Read more

Subjects:  1. American Samoa    2. Australia & Oceania    3. Foreign relations    4. History / Australia & Oceania    5. International Relations    6. Oceania    7. Political Science    8. Political Science / International Relations    9. United States   

Editorial Review

Surely this exhaustingly-researched, enthralling andenthusiastically-written tome is the last word on the most famous of allseafaring mutinies, that of shipmate Fletcher Christian and againstLieutenant Bligh on the Bounty. More than 200 years have gone bysince the ship left England after dreadful weather kept it harbored formonths, on its mission to transport breadfruit from Tahiti to the WestIndies. The mutiny in Tahiti left the mutineers scattered about theparadisiacal islands and found Bligh and 18 of his loyal crew members setadrift in a 23-foot open boat. Bligh, who'd served as Capt. James Cook'ssailing master, fantastically maneuvered the crew on a 48-day, 3,600-milejourney to safety. Caroline Alexander, author of Read more

Features

• Abridged
• Audiobook

Reviews (78)

Pitcairn or bust...
This is a superbly researched book on the Mutiny which dispells the myth propagated through the ages, amply re-inforced by Hollywood. The book must rate as the definitive objective account of the events and circumstances surrounding the appropriation of one of HM ships by the crew. Although the individual motivation for these occurances is not clearly defined the reader is left to develop an understanding of how leadership can be undermined by petty personal differences, inappropriate remarks and individual character deficiencies. Bligh was undoubtedly an experienced man of the sea, brought to fruition by his voyage with Captain Cook . His Captains role (but rank as Lieutenant)on the Bounty was undermined by lack of competent officers, his inability to discipline them according to Naval Regulations and the absence of Marines to protect and enforce his authority. His uncertainty in these matters due to the lack of support is almost palpable. His willingness towards leniency by the standards of the day appear to have done more to encourage than to dispell would be mutineers. In those days seamen needed of their officers authority but not cruelty, respect but not friendship. What is not in doubt is his courage and navigational skills as well as his insight into the islanders, saving the longboats crew at their fist trip ashore. As was usual in this era the patronage of some crew members saved their lives at the courtmartial and the final decision to stay on Pitcairn are all key memories of an extraorinary text.

What History is All About
This book is what the first-rate historian produces: exhaustively researched, a narrative reordered for dramatic effect, character development and events placed in contemporary context. But I searched in vain for any reference to the Nordoff & Hall trilogy which led to the popular misconception of the mutiny.Norm Carpenter

Dull version of an exciting story
Gee, I really wanted to like this book, but I found it dull.The author could have weeded out a LOT of the tiny details.When you give so much detail about every crew members' village upbringing, every letter from every sibling, etc., etc., etc., it's enough to choke on.I ended up skimming through lots of this book, I just didn't need that much background.
Read more

Subjects:  1. 1764-1793    2. Abridged Audio - History    3. Audio Adult: Books On Tape    4. Audiobooks    5. Bounty Mutiny, 1789    6. Christian, Fletcher,    7. General    8. Oceania    9. Travel    10. History / Great Britain   

Subjects:  1. 1830-1916    2. 1848-1867    3. Austria    4. Emperor of Austria,    5. Europe - Austria & Hungary    6. Europe - History    7. Franz Joseph    8. History    9. History - General History    10. Imperialism    11. National characteristics, Austrian    12. Portraits    13. European history: c 1750 to c 1900    14. History / Austria & Hungary    15. c 1800 to c 1900    16. c 1900 - c 1914   

Reviews (2)

Useful, complex, covers a wide range of Aboriginal Art
I found this book useful, rich and varied, covering many aspects of this beautiful artwork, intermixing the Dreamtime stories with information about the many different geographical regions, artists and forms of art with(admittedly) small but powerful reproductions.

OK, but there are better...
This book is ok, I guess, but I have few criticisms.First, there are too many black-and-white photographs, making it hard to appreciate the pictures.Second, the text often gets out of sync. with the pictures, so you have to flick back and forth between text and pictures. Third, the book is just too small for the pictures it displays.I recommend "Songlines." ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Art    2. Art & Art Instruction    3. Art, Aboriginal Australian    4. Criticism    5. History - General    6. History - Prehistoric & Primitive    7. History Of Fine Arts    8. Special Subjects In Art    9. Art of indigenous peoples    10. Australia    11. Ethnic studies    12. Folk art   

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Anthropology - General    3. Archaeology / Anthropology    4. Ethnology And Ethnography    5. Social Science    6. Sociology    7. History of ideas, intellectual history    8. Indigenous peoples    9. Ok (Papua New Guinea people) - Social life and customs    10. Papua New Guinea    11. Social & cultural anthropology    12. Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural   

Reviews (1)

Amazing in Description...Lacking in Analysis
This boook present what is, I think, one of the few GOOD ethnographies on Indo-Fijians.I say that, not because Mayer's analysis of Indo-Fijian culture is particularly helpful, but because the descriptions he provides of Indian life in Fiji are excellent source material for the scholar and the interested reader alike.I used this book as on of my main sources for a thesis at UC Berkeley, and I found the wedding scenes to be particularly helpful, but so too are the funeral rites, the holidays, and, of course, the pictures are nice.If you are looking for a simple, straight-forward analysis of Indo-Fijians and their culture, look elsewhere.Mayer is trapped in the stereo-types of his day and a lot better analyses now exists on different facets of Indo-Fijian life.In particular, there are many good articles now available, researched and written in the last ten years. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Dispela buk em i tok tru
After almost a century of modern-style research, the world is not exactly short of ethnographies.You can find works on everybody from Indiana town dwellers to Sri Lankan fishermen.Papua New Guinea, as an area where a wide variety of cultures, some with Stone Age technologies, endured well into the 20th century, attracted the attention of anthropologists right from the start.There are a very large number of books on the country, starting with Malinowski�s seminal works on the Trobriand Islands during and after WW I.Most, but not all, of them concentrated on investigations of what are often referred to as �traditional cultures�, if not �primitive�.Anthropologists, not unlike Western tourists, have often been lured by the �exotic� parts of the world where cultures extremely different from their own could be found. Bateson, Burridge, Glasse, Heider, Hogbin, Mead, Pospisil, Rappaport,Reay, Schieffelin, and Wagner to name a few, gravitated to Papua New Guinea, drawn perhaps by the chance to study people whose cultures were �untouched� by the West.�Untouched� is no doubt a relative word.A few others, especially Lawrence and Worsley, delved into the cargo cults, an aspect of Melanesian religion that sprang up in the wake of colonial pressures on traditional beliefs.Modern Papua New Guinea, with its Christianity, bureaucracy, development projects, education, corruption, urban crime, and population explosion, has not received so much attention.Until now.Michael French Smith�s VILLAGE ON THE EDGE is a delightful new ethnography based on work in the same village in the mid-1970s and then in the late �90s.Based on the idea of observing change, because Kragur village, on Kairiru island, off the north coast of the country, has been changing rapidly for many decades, Smith succeeds brilliantly.To my taste, he strikes just the right note between popular writing and professional investigation.In a clear, jargon-less style, he covers many areas usually found in ethnographies, such as village structure, family structure, the economic and political system, and religious beliefs, but focusses on how all these things have changed.It is a down-to-earth, non-exotic picture of present dilemmas for the Kragur villagers who still, after over twenty years of independence, remain poised between a sharing, cooperative society based on personal ties and the money-based, more individualistic one introduced as a correct model by the West and emulated by educated, town-dwelling locals.Smith puts himself into the picture, admits to his predilections and difficulties.Refreshingly, he does not hide behind some false �objectivity�, but shows how he accepted certain privileges (and dealt with some problems) that came with being a �whiteman�.This honesty, coupled with a sense of humor and nice introduction of the flavor of Pidgin English or Tok Pisin, a national language in the country, made the book all the more appealing.Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - General    2. Asia - Southeast Asia    3. Economic Conditions    4. History    5. History - General History    6. History: World    7. Kairiru (Papua New Guinea peop    8. Kairiru (Papua New Guinea people)    9. Kragur (Papua New Guinea)    10. Oceania    11. Social conditions    12. Area / regional studies    13. Australasian & Pacific history    14. Papua New Guinea    15. Social & cultural anthropology   

Reviews (24)

Fascinating story
I loved this book.It joins a spate of other books constructed in much the same way.It is reminiscent of James Michner'ss books, with the construction of personal stories amid the history.The research she did was wonderful.It is interesting how one event can ripple out and connect with and touch so many other lives.This was not even what would be termed a particularly charged event (such as one that would garner world news coverage), yet led to connections everywhere.It is fascinating and she has done a wonderful job with it.I was fascinated with the historical beginnings of Chautauqua.In the present gas crunch it seems like they might be looking at bringing back the concept.What a delightful thought - to have all of that wonderful esoteric knowledge traveling all over the country.
Ada Blackjack
I really enjoyed this book.It took you to a different time with different mores and values, and you can see Ada as a victim of prejudice, in being a woman, and in being a native Alaskan from the young men she went to Wrangell Island with.The arrogance, spins, misinformation, responsibility avoidance, and power plays that were done after the expedition was over must be compared with politics today. History repeats itself, indeed.I would highly recommend this book.

Survivor
Absorbing account of an Inuit woman who was the sole survivor of a tragic Arctic expedition and her fourmale companions who did not make it.Born Ada Delutuk in 1898, when she was eight she was taken in by Methodist missionaries in Nome and talk to read, write, sew and cook.At sixteen she married Jack Blackjack, was divorced at 21, one son out of 3 children survived, but she was unable to care for him because of his tuberculosis.She was persuaded to accompany a group of young men on a land claims expedition to Wrangle Island, a desolate place above the Arctic circle between Canada and Siberia, to cook and sew for them.For Ada the money is good and will enable her to support her son she is promised the mission will be for one year only and that two other Eskimo families will accompany them, but they abandon the mission at the last moment.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Adventurers & Explorers    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Discovery And Exploration (General)    4. Ethnic Cultures - Native Americans    5. History    6. History (Specific Aspects)    7. History: World    8. Polar Regions    9. History / Polar Regions   

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Crafts / Hobbies    3. Decorating    4. Hawaii    5. Hawaiians    6. Industries    7. Leis    8. Minor Arts    9. Shellcraft    10. Social Science    11. Sociology    12. United States - State & Local - General    13. Handicrafts   

Reviews (47)

A dismal whinge
This book is a prolonged snivel about the pain of voluntarily going to places the author then found tacky, hostile or boring. By his own account he had not a moment's pleasure from his travels until he reached Hawaii, where it was all American and OK and Not Foreign. The only puzzle is why he did not at a much earlier stage of the trip get on a plane and go there direct; presumably he'd taken an advance from his publisher and had to deliver a book of some sort. The whole thing carries a moral for modern travellers: if you can't engage constructively with the places you go to, then please, please, stay at home - that way you'll be happier and you won't needlessly contribute to airline CO2 emissions.

On the whole, a satisfying read
To be honest, it took me a while to get into this one. I found the sections on Australia and New Zealand uninteresting and somewhat disorderly, and not any way as compelling as what was to come. The book took off as soon as he hit the north-eastern coast of Australia, camping on the beaches around Cookstown etc., and his subsequent journey to the Trobriands, and on across the pacific. The portrayal of the characters was really excellent, and I found myself sharing in Theroux's humiliation at the hands of the islanders, escpecially the teasing he endured from the children in the Trobriands, frightening really.
Theroux is not for every reader
If you are a Theroux affectionado, then you will enjoy this book.If you are an social anthropologist, you will find it interesting.If you think that he tells you about his sensual Oceania nights with the babes, forget it; he never reveals that in his non-fiction. However if you want to get a realistic view of the Pacific islands and Aussie/New Zealand and you like intellectual reference points, you should read this book. You will love the parts about how the locals view the beaches! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th Century Description And Travel    2. Australia & Oceania    3. Description and travel    4. History, Local    5. Oceania    6. Polynesia    7. Sea kayaking    8. Theroux, Paul    9. Travel    10. Travel - General    11. Journeys   

Reviews (3)

A Great Mystery
People have wondered for centuries how and why the great
Experience One of the Wonders of the World
Easter Island is one of those places in the world you'd most like to see; but probably never will.Fortunately Deborah Underwood has taken us there in this fascinating book.Her strong writing accompanied by great photographs and illustrations give us a sense of place and help us understand the history, environment, and oddity that is Easter Island.

An appealing title packed with visual backup
Adding to the 'Wonders of the World' series is a special focus on the mysterious Easter Island statues, a topic generally not given complete coverage for this grade group of 3-5. 48 pages discuss Easter Island history, the investigations into the statues, and theories about how the islanders moved them into place. An appealing title packed with visual backup. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Antiquities    2. Children: Grades 4-6    3. Curiosities & Wonders    4. Easter Island    5. General    6. History    7. History - General History    8. Juvenile Nonfiction    9. Juvenile literature    10. Megalithic monuments    11. Monuments    12. Oceania    13. People & Places - General   

Subjects:  1. Australia - History    2. Ethnic Politics    3. General    4. History: American    5. Sociology    6. Australasian & Pacific history: c 1750 to c 1900    7. Australia    8. Ethnic studies    9. c 1800 to c 1900   

Subjects:  1. Australia    2. Australia & New Zealand - Australia    3. General    4. History    5. International broadcasting    6. Mass Communication Media And Politics    7. Political Science    8. Politics/International Relations    9. Radio    10. Radio Australia    11. Radio Broadcasting    12. Sociology    13. Technology & Industrial Arts    14. Media studies    15. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT    16. Political Science / General    17. Radio Australia - History   

Reviews (2)

An Important WW II Battle Little Known in the United States
This book belongs in any library of books on World War II.
A Definitive Account
"Few Australians have heard of Gona, Buna and Sanananda - or for that matter Milne Bay. In commemorating the Papuan campaign we have, as a nation, got lost on the Kokoda trail" - Peter Brune.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Australia & New Zealand - Australia    2. Campaigns    3. History    4. History - Military / War    5. Military    6. Military - Other    7. Military - World War II    8. Papua New Guinea    9. World War, 1939-1945    10. Australasian & Pacific history: Second World War    11. Australia    12. History / Military / World War II    13. Second World War, 1939-1945