Overview

Hawai‘i’s Scenic Roads examines a century of overland transportation from the kingdom’s first constitutional government until World War II, discovering how roads in the world’s most isolated archipelago rivaled those on the continental U.S. Building Hawai‘i’s roads was no easy feat, as engineers confronted a uniquecombination of circumstances: extreme isolation, mountainous topography, torrential rains, deserts, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and on Haleakal?, freezing temperatures. By investigating the politics and social processes that facilitated road projects, Hawai‘i’s Scenic Roads explains that foreign settlers wanted roads to “civilize” the Hawaiians and promote economic development, specifically agriculture. Once sugar became the dominant driver, civic and political leaders turned theirattention to constructing scenic roads. Viewed as “commercial enterprises,” scenic byways became an essential factor in establishing tourism as Hawai‘i’s “third crop” after sugar and pineapple. These thoroughfares also served as playgrounds for the islands’ elite residents and wealthy visitors who could afford the luxury of carriage driving, and after 1900, motorcars. Duensing’s provocative analysis of the 1924 Hawai‘i Bill of Rights reveals that roads played a critical role in redefining the Territory of Hawai‘i’s status within the United States. Politicians and civic leaders focused on highway funding to argue that Hawai‘i was an “integral part of the Union,” thus entitled to be treated as if it were a state. By accepting this Bill of Rights, Congress confirmed the territory’s claim to access federal programs, especially highway aid. Washington’s involvement in Hawai‘i increased subsequently, as did the islands’ dependence on the national government. Federal money helped the territory weather the Great Depression as it became enmeshed in New Deal programs and philosophy. Although primarily an economic protest, the Hawai‘i Bill of Rights was a crucial stepping stone on the path to eventual statehood in 1959. At the core of this book is the intriguing tales of road projects that established the islands' most renowned scenic drives, including the Pali Highway, byways around K?lauea Volcano, Haleakal? Highway, and the H?na Belt Road. The author’s unique approach provides a fascinating perspective for understandingHawai‘i’s social dynamics, as well as its political, environmental, and economic history.

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Reviews

[The author s] passionate and learned commitment has resulted in the previously uncovered topic of Hawaii s road history in this volume that will likely emerge a classic.-- <i>Journal of the West</i>

[Duensing's] passionate and learned commitment has resulted in the previously uncovered topic of Hawaii's road history in this volume that will likely emerge a classic.-- Journal of the West

Hawai'i's Scenic Roads is not just a narrowly constructed story about overcoming the formidable engineering challenges of the mountainous and hilly topography, jagged coastlines, highly variable and sometimes torrentially rainy weather patterns, active volcanoes, and frequent earthquakes. Instead, Duensing also adds a host of nuanced layers to her narrative, melding the technical and planning history with a parallel analysis of the politics and social processes of modernization, connecting the history of the islands' infrastructure to their economic and political histories. . . . [The book] contributes to our understanding of the local implications of U.S. variants of colonialism, and of postcolonial structural transitions during the twentieth century. Last, but certainly not least, it is an excellent and illustrative longitudinal case study of federal-local government relations and their on-the-ground manifestations.--Owen Gutfreund, Hunter College, CUNY American Historical Review Duensing has crafted a detailed, valuable history of how roads came to be built in a challenging island environment with volcanoes, mountains, geographic separation, variable weather conditions, and a scarcity of money.-- CHOICE As both an engaging read and a prime example of scholarship, Hawaii's Scenic Roads: paving the Way for Tourism in the Islands: will find avid readers among historians, engineers, urban planners and makers of public policy, particularly with regard to transportation. It will also appeal to those many local residents with a persistent desire to understand how pre-World War II Hawaii evolved into the American state it is today.-- Honolulu Star Advertiser [Duensing's] passionate and learned commitment has resulted in the previously uncovered topic of Hawaii's road history in this volume that will likely emerge a classic.--Owen Gutfreund, Hunter College, CUNY Journal of the West

Author Information

Dawn E. Duensing worked on Maui as an independent historian and historic preservation consultant for seventeen years.

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