BOOK REVIEWS

involve mobilization rather thananalysis" (188).

It is a measure of the merit of Colo­nialism's Culture that it provokes dis­agreement that cannot be developedwithin the brief compass of this review.Some serious students of colonialismare still inclined to agree with NicholasDirks (Colonialism and Culture, 1992,175) that the whole efflorescenee ofcolonial discourse studies may havegone so far as to obscure essential his­torical and political issues. Thomas, tohis credit, has created the kind ofnuanced argument that can informeven those, like the reviewer, who stub­bornly believe that analysis shouldbegin with political economy beforeproceeding to issues of representation.Whatever one's position on suchdebates, this book can be highlyrecommended.

EUGENE OGANUniversity of Minnesota

"

Tides ofHistory: The Pacific Islands inthe Twentieth Century, edited by K RHowe, Robert C Kiste, and Brij V Lal.Sydney: Allen & Unwin; Honolulu:University of Hawai'i Press, 1994.ISBN 0-8248-1597-1, xvi + 475 pages,photos, maps, notes, index. Paper,US$22.oo; A$34.95.

Historians have made several attemptsto narrate the past of the PacificIslands from ancient times to thepresent, but this is the first try at aregional overview for this century. Assomeone who has taught twentieth­century Pacific history for severalyears, I looked forward to this book's

publication for its potential use as aclassroom text. The results embodysome of the strengths of the fieldtoday, and all of its limitations. Theyalso demonstrate the challenges ofediting an anthology.

A glance at the table of Contentsproduces mixed feelings. Of the eigh­teen contributors, only two are nativeto the Pacific Islands and only two arewomen. All but one are based in Aus­tralia (8), New Zealand (5), andHawai'i (4); the sole exception is a Bel­gian who teaches at the French PacificUniversity in New Caledonia. Consid­ering that JWDavidson became thefirst "Pacific" historian at the Austra­lian National University forty-fiveyears ago, those numbers and catego­ries say a great deal about how farthe field has "progressed." Appar­ently three more indigenous Islanders,including two women, were asked tocontribute, but one refused, onedropped out, and another wrote anessay that did not fit the book'sformat. Although references are citedin the notes at the end of each chapter,it would have been helpful to have aselected bibliography at the end of thebook, and the three maps are all of theentire Pacific, not of subregions dis­cussed in the chapters.

Even more dismaying are the chap­ter titles. Part I, which deals with"Colonisation," lives up to its topic bygrouping everything according to colo­nizing powers, in combination withcatch-all geographic terms that co­editor Howe, in his preface, describesas "flexible." Some odd headings areyielded, such as "Britain, Germany,Australia, and New Zealand in Poly­nesia," under which Roger Thompson

39° THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC· FALL 1995

gamely includes Nauru and the GilbertIslands. Ironically, Part 2, "TowardsDecolonisation," continues the colo­nial categories (without even geo­graphic labels this time), except forHugh Laracy's chapter on World WarTwo. Part 3, weakly titled "UncertainTimes," bravely turns thematic, butthis change leads to repetitive overlap­ping, especially between the economicand social chapters (as is evidenced byPenelope Schoeffel's referral of thereader to Bruce Knapman's essay morethan once). By the time we get to Lal'sconcluding "The Passage Out," adouble-entendre comes to mind.

Lal's chapter should come first, notlast, to make up for the absence of edi­torial introductions to either parts orchapters. It is no secret that this bookwas a labor of frustration for theeditors-some contributors wrote theiressays five years ago-and that at the1992 Pacific History Association con­ference in Christchurch, the wholeproject's conceptual premise was chal­lenged by postmodernists. Whileacknowledging the pitfalls of "totaliz­ing metanarratives" on an intellectuallevel, I still think there is a need for thiskind of book for beginning students inthis field. The problem is, this bookunintentionally lost much of its coher­ence somewhere along the way.Howe's disclaimer that "editors getwhat they inspect, not always whatthey expect" (xvi) is not satisfying.

The mostly "old hands" chosen tocontribute are well known and amplyqualified, which is an asset, though thefact that some of them have been writ­ing variations of this material for yearstends to deprive the book of a certainfreshness that new faces might have

injected into the narrative. The mostnotable exception is Vilsoni Hereniko,whose chapter on "Representations ofCultural Identities" is lively andreflects his background in literatureand drama, not history in the conven­tional manner. His opening image ofthe castrated coconut trees of Waikikiis not only an apt metaphor for whatoutside domination has done to Pacificcultures. Nevertheless, Stewart Firth'spredictable chapter on strategic andnuclear issues generates some passion,and Peter Larmour manages to makethe deadly topic "Political Institu­tions" surprisingly engaging (unlikeRichard Herr, who at least had"nationalism" in his chapter heading).

Howe and Lal even provide somehistoriographic fireworks. Howe'srather compressed preface links mod­ern "Islander-oriented" studies to thevery incomplete and often mutedprocess of Pacific decolonization­which he says produced a "Romantic"emphasis on the precolonial and earlycontact eras, leaving the current cen­tury mainly to social scientists (severalof whom are authors in part 3). Lal'sconcluding introduction goes further,to make a good case for reexaminingcolonial exploitation and "fatalimpact" alongside indigenous agency.The challenge of doing such "inter­active" history is daunting for every­one in the Pacific field, not just theeditors and authors of this volume. AsHowe admits, "The main organizationproblem was to balance geographiccoverage, chronology, and thematicinvestigation" (xv). That "balance,"unfortunately, has left agency (histori­cal as well as historiographic) mostlyin outside hands. Even Kiste's chapter

BOOK REVIEWS

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39 1

on the United States fails to mentionthe 1975 Constitutional Convention inMicronesia, whereas Norman Meller'sstudy of that event revealed consider­able indigenous initiative.

After Kiste's familiar overview ofprecolonial times (including a quicksynopsis of the late nineteenth-centuryscramble for colonies), Peter Hempen­stall argues for the general "shapeless­ness" of imperial designs. Neitherdescribes native resistance to colonialtakeovers, which is particularly disap­pointing in Hempenstall's case,because he has written a great dealabout the subject elsewhere. He wouldprobably reply that resistance was nothis assignment, but it would havemade a more interesting chapter.Judith Bennett also avoids model­building in her chapter on "Holland,Britain, and Germany in Melanesia,"but there is much more on indigenousresponse. Thompson includes the NewZealand Maori in his chapter, to hiscredit, and David Hanlon, in a chapteron Micronesia, gives the only realmention of Hawai'i before chapter 10

(Kiste's second chapter, on the post­World War II United States). Hanlonably combines coverage of colonialdomination (including ceremonies ofpossession) with native resistance,armed and otherwise. Stephen Hen­ningham reworks material from his1992 book on France in the Pacific,and Hugh Laracy synthesizes materialfrom the growing subfield of WorldWar II in the Pacific (though he givesthe cause of the war short shrift).

Part 2 of this book demonstratesthat one can portray the process ofdecolonization in the Pacific as beingalmost as outsider-inspired as coloni-

zation. Barrie Macdonald's chapter onBritain makes the often-heard argu­ment that London's economizing "eastof Suez," more than indigenous initia­tive, pushed colonies toward indepen­dence. Terence Wesley-Smith's chapteron Australia and New Zealandattributes preponderant roles to theUnited Nations and to Labour parties,though Australia's racial policy made itmore reluctant than New Zealand toconsider ongoing linkages with itsPacific colonies. The contrast betweenthe "free association" (and outmigra­tion) chosen by the Cooks and Niue,and the continuing struggle for recog­nition by New Zealand Maori, is strik­ing. The same could be said, in Kiste'schapter, of the differences between theattitudes of American Samoans andChamorros of the Northern Marianastoward the United States, and thosenative Hawaiians and the Chamorrosof Guam. Paul de Deckker makes asimilar distinction between Wallisianloyalty toward France and the relativenationalism of many Kanaks and Tahi­tians.

Such apparent contradictions cryfor thematic analysis, but they tend tolose their salience in the remarkablydisembodied chapters that follow. Forexample, despite her obvious strengthson Samoa and on gender relations(especially using literary evidence),Schoeffel's chapter reads more likesociology than anthropology, andKnapman's economic pessimism isdeadening. Still, I shall try this bookout on my students (in conjunctionwith other readings) because, after allis said and done, it contains much use­ful information. In fairness to theauthors and editors, it should be

39 2 THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC· FALL 1995

Bougainville Campaign Diary, byYauka Aluambo Liria. Melbourne:Indra Publishing, 1993. ISBN0-9587718-4-7, viii + 199 pages,map, appendix. Paper, A$19.95.

The Changing Role of the Military inPapua New Guinea, by RJ May. Can­berra: Strategic and Defence StudiesCentre, Research School of PacificStudies, Australian National Univer­sity, 1993. ISBN 0-7315-1847-0, 85pages, tables, appendixes, notes, bibli­ography. Paper, A$15.00.

admitted that writing general historiesis never easy and that packaging aregion as diverse culturally and histori­cally as the Pacific Islands is a bit of aconundrum. But this effort, sadly, isnot what it could have been. Like thesingle-author pan-Pacific narrativesthat preceded it, it should inspire us tolearn to do better.

DAVID A CHAPPELL

University ofHawai'i at Manoa

These two books have a lot in com­mon, in their focus on the military inPapua New Guinea, but they are alsovery different in their approach andstyle of presentation. Ron May's bookis a brief but comprehensive analysis ofan increasingly important issue inPapua New Guinea, the role of the mil­itary in the state. He sets out to showthat there has been a fundamentalchange in the role of the Papua NewGuinea Defence Force and to explainwhy. The central theme is how thedefense force, inherited at indepen­dence after a searching debate on

whether it should be disbanded, andgiven an essentially external defenserole, came to replace that external rolewith an internal one. An escalating lawand order problem within the country,an increasing realization that it simplydid not have a viable external role,and, finally, the Bougainville crisis,explain the shift.

The book has all the usual academicevidentiary appurtenances: copiousfootnotes, references, appendixes, glos­sary of acronyms and abbreviations,tables, and so on. The colonial originsof the Papua New Guinea DefenceForce and its anatomy, structure, orga­nization, regional representation, andfunding are covered. On all these, ason military-eivil relations, the missionof the force, its civic action work, bor­der operations, and maritime surveil­lance activities, May is informative,balanced, and crisp. Although he over­looks nothing of significance, he doesnot dwell very much on the manyinternal problems of the force, which,as Liria shows, have clearly contrib­uted to the poor performance onBougainville.

Yauka Liria's book complementsRon May's. It is a hilariously funnyand entertaining book, despite dealingwith such an appalling tragedy. Aneleven-page appendix, giving a chro­nology of important events in theevolving Bougainville crisis from Janu­ary 1990 to the end of June 1993, isthe closest he comes to presenting hismaterials in the familiar academicmanner. The book is simultaneously areflective and racy personal account ofthe insurgency and counterinsurgencyon the island of Bougainville, whereLiria served as an intelligence officer

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