Journalist and historian Laurel Murphy tells the story of Hawai’i’s overthrow from the perspective of the ambitious revolutionaries who toppled the island monarchy. Her blow-by-blow account explores how things might have turned out had the royal court and the US government responded differently to this crisis of governance. Hawai’i Pono’i casts new light on the formative events that forever altered the course of Hawaiian history.

Did a Misjudgment Cost a Kingdom?

Journalist and historian Laurel Murphy, born and bred in Hawai‘i, spent years digging deep into the archives to tell the poignant and pointed story of the overthrow of Hawai‘i’s monarchy, as told from the perspective of the ambitious revolutionaries who brought down Queen Lili‘uokalani, the imperious ruler of the Hawaiian Islands.

This blow-by-blow account leaves the reader puzzling over what-ifs, as Murphy deftly reveals plentiful examples of how this tragic turn of events could have turned out differently if those at the center of the action—the queen, her ministers, foreign ambassadors and US government officials—had responded to the crisis of governance differently.

But ultimately, as Murphy’s story details, America’s drive for empire during the Spanish-American War trumped the very real reservations expressed by even the people at the center of the plot. And with that, Hawai‘i was ushered uncomfortably, and against the will of most of its people, into colonial subjugation. Democracy and statehood came only much later. This penetrating book casts new light on the formative events that shifted the course of Hawai‘i’s destiny.

—Kirstin Downey, columnist, Honolulu Civil Beat, and author, Isabella: The Warrior Queen

Laurel Murphy

Softcover, 232 pp.