Unfamiliar Fishes - Sarah Vowell

Of all the countries the United States invaded or colonized in 1898,
Sarah Vowell considers the story of the Americanization of Hawaii to be
the most intriguing. From the arrival of the New England missionaries
in 1820, who came to Christianize the local heathens, to the coup
d'tat 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. Whalers who fire
cannons at the Bible-thumpers denying them their god-given right to
whores; an incestuous princess pulled between her new god and her
brother-husband; sugar barons, con men, Theodore Roosevelt, and the
last Hawaiian queen, a songwriter whose sentimental ode "Aloha 'Oe"
serenaded the first Hawaiian-born president of the United States during
his 2009 inaugural parade.

With her trademark wry insights and reporting, Vowell sets out to
discover the odd, emblematic, and exceptional history of the fiftieth
state. In examining the place where Manifest Destiny got a sunburn, she
finds America again, warts and all.