Finding Hawai'i: In Search of Paradise on the Big Island - Couverture souple

McGrath, Sean

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1482584514 ISBN 13 : 9781482584516

Editeur : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013

Synopsis

There’s a fine line between adventure and cultural immersion, and there’s a multi-billion dollar industry sold on this idea. Today’s Hawaiian tourists spend their days lounging against the backdrop of shimmering oceans and impossibly blue skies. They unwind at night in their Polynesian-themed hotels, eating dinners covered in pineapples and macadamia nuts. Afterwards, they attend a luau on a back patio illuminated only by citronella tiki torches; the expansive darkness engulfing everything else around them. This is what we think of as Hawai’i, but it’s illusory; it is manufactured. Finding Hawai'i chronicles the author's seventeen-day journey through Hawaii’s eponymous island and intricately details the history behind its well-known and slightly-more-obscure places. It introduces a beautiful island with a rich and historical culture to those who have never visited and reveals a hidden, darker side of the state for those who have. Finding Hawai'i draws on a variety of sources and juxtaposes early Hawaiian culture and its storied traditions and values with modern-day Hawaiian culture under the pretext of a compelling travel narrative. Throughout the book, you walk with the author through a first-person account of luscious landscapes, hidden towns, and off-beat destinations. We explore how contemporary Hawaiian society has distinctly evolved into one of acculturation and assimilation, but is plagued by homeless, destitution, and addiction. Finding Hawai'i examines the unique ability for Hawai’i, as a state, to showcase a façade of tradition for visiting tourists while concealing, or ignoring, its societal ills in favor of increased tourism and revenue. It is written to allow us to make that connection while creating and maintaining relationships with the number of people we meet throughout our trip. If one thinks of Hawai’i as a zoo, the experience of the every-day visitor begins and ends behind a glass enclosure, or a railing. Finding Hawai'i takes the reader past the barricades and into the den with the lions.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Sean McGrath is a scholar of American history and currently teaches that subject at Stuart-Hobson Middle School in Washington, D.C. McGrath has also written extensively for Newsday, a daily periodical targeted to the residents of Long Island in the State of New York. His American history thesis, "The American Revolution: Advancing Women Beyond Their Social Constraints Since 1776," was published in the Fall 2005 edition of Campus Proceedings, the official magazine for the National Council for Undergraduate Research. It was well-received by editors and reviewed by a tenured supervising professor who hailed it as “…one of the best senior seminar papers I’ve ever read.” Perhaps most famously, in February 2007, he was a contestant on the television show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and won a total of $50,000, in addition to the hearts of America.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Date d'édition: 2013
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1482584514
• ISBN 13: 9781482584516
• Reliure: Broché
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 342
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Manufactured by Amazon on behalf of the author; https://www.amazon.fr/hz/contact-us; ; c/o Amazon Media EU S.à.r.l., 38 Avenue John F. Kennedy; Luxembourg; L-1855; Luxembourg