THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC. FALL 1991

A History of the Pacific Islands, byI. C. Campbell. Christchurch: Univer-sity of Canterbury Press, and Berkeleyand Los Angeles: University of Califor-nia Press, 1989; St. Lucia: University ofQueensland Press, 1990, ISBN 0-7022-2291-7,239 pp, maps, tables, glossary,index. NZ$29.95.

With similar concision, but less origi-nality and polish, one can say that IanCampbell's History of the PacificIslands examines the region "from theearliest times to the present day." Andall this in fewer than 240 pages. AsCampbell states in his preface: "thisbook is the first since 1951 to present asynoptic history of the region as awhole."

ence," we still have no reasoned expla-nation of the ways in which decisionmaking in Paris in the days of the Min-istry for the Navy and the later Colo-nial Ministry framed the administra-tion and dominated the politics ofFrance's island possessions. Given thecontinuation of that "presence" in themost formal ways, consideration has tobe given to the mechanisms that over-rode, rather than worked through,local legislative and representativesystems, whether dominated by settlersin New Caledonia or by Euro-Polyne-sians in Tahiti. Budgetary centraliza-tion and the political subordination ofthe local executive may in the end havebeen the biggest single differencebetween the French islands and theBritish in the Pacific.

COLIN NEWBURY

Linacre College, Oxford

listed, including a fuller account ofindigenous churches that have takenthe place of older authority structuresin eastern Polynesia.

The most original material derivingfrom the author's own research is intwo chapters on France's relations withAustralia and New Zealand, and thework of the Comite de l'Oceanie fran-c;:aise as a pressure group. The latterwas not particularly effective in theinterwar period. If anything, politicsin both New Caledonia and FrenchPolynesia, which had been quite livelyin the late nineteenth century, suffereda setback after 1900 and did not reallyrecover until the period of the Loicadre reforms. But Aldrich is right toemphasize, as few others have done,the place of the British dominions bothas rivals in Pacific influence and ascomplementary markets for the verylimited economic production and con-sumption possible in areas of formalFrench control. That theme ofregional, rather than metropolitan-periphery, development, is not suffi-ciently addressed by the French writerson empire whose works are thought-fully assessed at the end of the book.

There are still some gaps in theassessment of the French contributionto administrative and social change inthe conclusion. The place of the Frenchlegal system, both in personal andcommercial law and in droit adminis-tratif deserves a mention, if onlybecause several generations of PacificIslanders live under this system, whichhas fundamentally influenced theirland tenure, contract law, and civilrights. Secondly, despite the carefulattention paid to metropolitan factorsin accounting for the "French pres-

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It traverses the three conventionalgeographical divisions of the islandPacific-Polynesia, Melanesia, andMicronesia. Campbell's chapter organ-ization is also conventional. Com-mencing with a chapter devoted to theoriginal inhabitants and characteristicsof their societies, Campbell goes on inChapter 2 to examine Austronesiansettlement of what is now Polynesia.The next four chapters deal withPolynesia until the latter half of thenineteenth century. Melanesia scorestwo chapters to reach the same stage-that is, the beginning of Europeanannexation-and Micronesia, onechapter. The three major divisions aremelded in the subsequent chapters,where a more regional and thematictreatment deals with the politics ofannexation, the nature of the societiesafter a hundred years of Western con-tact, priorities in colonial policies, theconsolidation of colonial administra-tions mainly after World War I, and theimpact of World War II on policies.The process of islands gaining or(regaining) independence merits achapter, as does the postindependenceperiod with a closing chapter on a ret-rospective and, as far as any historianwill, a prospective overview.

On the cover of the book, Camp-bell's colleague and current director ofthe Macmillan Brown Centre at Christ-church, New Zealand, MalamaMeleisea, remarks that Campbell hasexamined historical events and pro-cesses from the point of view and inter-ests of the Islanders concerned. Thiscomment is arguable, as is the claimthat "no other work has done this."

Although the picture Campbellpaints is a valid one and a fine example

of island-oriented history, it is in aWestern framework. The bulk of thebook deals with the post-Western con-tact period, while the political andsocial prehistory of the island societiesis sketched very lightly. Although mostof the Pacific's indigenous populationwas and still is in Melanesia, the regionfirst settled by human beings, Camp-bell's initial emphasis falls heavily onPolynesia-its discovery, early tradecontacts, missionization, and thegrowth of the island kingdoms.Melanesia's two chapters represent amere half of the attention given toPolynesia.

The chronology of European pene-tration dominates, where perhapssequence, pattern, and significance tothe indigenous people could have beenemphasized more. The exploration andcontacting of the populous Highlandsof New Guinea by Westerners betweenthe 1930S and 1950S, for example, werejust as cosmos-altering to the inhabit-ants as Cook's contact with the Maoriin 1769-177° and sandalwood tradingin Hawai'i in the 181OS. WhetherPolynesia looms large in this historybecause of its importance to the earlyWesterners or because of the resultantmyriad writings on the region, it stillreflects a Western definition of signifi-cance.

Even in the post-Western contactperiod, internal historical processes ofisland societies-for example, theresistance by various ali'i chiefs inTahiti to the monarchy during the reignof Pomare IV, and the vast social impli-cations for ordinary Hawaiians of theGreat Mahele of 1848-are not men-tioned. Campbell's history is an eticone, based on principles imposed by a

THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC· FALL 1991

Western historian. It is unlikely thatemic (indigenous) perceptions willproduce a general Pacific historybecause of the particularities of cultureand location. Most likely, when a gen-eral history of the Pacific is written by aPacific Islander it will still be an etichistory, although the interpretationmay be different. Islander-orientedhistory is the province of specialists, bethey native or foreign, who have thecultural keys to unlock the meaningand uses of the past for a specific groupof people. As Francis Hezel (PacificStudies, July 1988) has pointed out, theexpression of that history may not bein the written form so dear to Westernhistorical tradition. What Campbellhas done, and all he claims to do with-out any apologies, is to show withclarity the processes and consequencesof interaction between Islanders andoutsiders as well as the near-inevitabil-ity of European political and oftencultural dominance in an island envi-ronment, constrained by the inherentnature of their small-scale, isolatedsocieties and distance from world com-mercial and population centers.

Within the framework he hasselected, Campbell writes sympatheti-cally of the historical actors on thePacific Island stage. Neo-Marxists andother theorists will look in vain for agrand design. Yet analysis walks hand-in-hand with flowing narrative, devoidof jargon. Campbell keeps it simple,but is not simplistic. On the intercul-tural processes, he rarely overstates thecase either for Islanders or for new-comers. Eminently a realist, he doesnot hesitate to point out the weak-nesses and deficiencies in the leadership

of some island societies that exacer-bated their existing locational andtechnological vulnerability to certainpredatory Westerners. Pacific societies,past and present, have not been ideal-ized-a temptation to which somewriters with a historical bent havesuccumbed in recent years in a mis-guided and sometimes dishonest effortto restore Islander identity and self-respect.

As modern Pacific Islanders face thechallenge of not simply running local-ized chiefdoms or small descent orresidence groups, but of governingsovereign states, there is an emergingcomprehension of the difficulties facedby former colonial administrations.Campbell does not claim that theisland states concerned have suddenlyabsolved their former colonial mastersof all their imperialist sins, but there isin the tone of the book far less criticismof the colonial era than was heardtwenty or even ten years ago. PerhapsCampbell is reflecting the loss by newPacific states of the moral high groundrather than their appreciation of theproblems of colonial government. Helooks forward to the political future ofthe island states with more optimism,albeit guarded, than other commenta-tors who see in growing politicalpatronage the undermining of constitu-tionallegitimacy and respect for thestate. However, in the closing sectionof the book there is a strong sense ofthe immense limitations that circum-scribe the range of options for PacificIslanders in their search for economicindependence and development.Throughout, although Western impactmay not have been "fatal," Campbell

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sees it as an inescapable, unrelentingimpetus to adaptation and, often,acculturation by island societies.

The newcomers to the islands areassessed with an equally critical eye asare the Islanders. However, Cook, notas firmly enthroned in the Polynesianpantheon as Campbell implies, isportrayed as he is perceived by mostEnglish-speaking Westerners, as abeatified image of the noble, civilizedexplorer.

However, it must be kept in mindthat Campbell makes it quite plain whothe potential readership of the book is.It is aimed at the general reader. And itis on that basis that the book should bejudged. No specialist historian (or pre-historian) should take it as an affront ifa particular field of study-say, a dotof an island with a couple of hundredinhabitants, or a theory of originalsettlement-has been dealt with sum-marily. The book indeed is a summary,a synopsis of hundreds of monographs,theses, and specialist studies, whichprovides an introduction to this hugeocean of islands for the general readerand the novice student.

Although the odd error of fact hascrept in-for example, William Mac-Gregor (who, like many others, isomitted from the index) was not thesecond governor of British NewGuinea (I6I)-the book is fundamen-tally reliable as a regional history.Campbell's suggestions for furtherreading seem at times idiosyncratic inview of the fact that he is a PacificIsland scholar and teacher of almosttwenty years' standing. The recom-mended island studies are useful, butsome other references are outdated or

unreliable. Students in particularshould tread with care here.

Nonetheless those who teach thesestudents will welcome this book.Campbell reduces thousands of indi-vidual trees to neat forests. This is notsimply a conceptual condensation, butalso one of expression. Some recentisland and Islander studies can be rec-ommended to students only becausethey have content unavailable else-where; their prose-leaden andlabored-is no example for students ofhistory. A History of the Pacific Islandsis an excellent model for budding writ-ers. Campbell's precision and clarity ofprose reflect his familiarity with a mas-sive corpus of information as well ashis incisiveness of mind. It may bemundane, but perhaps one token ofesteem a practicing university teachercan offer is to say that Campbell's nicephrasing lends itself to the basis foressay and examination questions withthe standard appendix of "Discuss."Students appreciate this book; minehave bought out stocks at the book-store, even though it was originallyonly a "recommended" text. For themand the general reader, this book isreally an essential.

Ian Campbell is to be thanked forgiving us this balanced, lucid, andreliable foundation text.

JUDITH A. BENNETT

University ofOtago

The Pacific Theater: Island Represen-tations of World War II, edited byGeoffrey White and Lamont Lind-strom. Pacific Islands Monograph