Unsustainable Empire

“This is an absolutely brilliant book on the little-known or remembered struggle over statehood and the role of white supremacy in Asian settler colonialism and supposed multicultural equality in Hawai‘i. It is timely, necessary, and exceedingly well-argued. Unsustainable Empire reveals how nonhaole settler colonialism in Hawai‘i works, how the myth of multiculturalism in the statehood movement operated, and what the legacy of statehood is today. Importantly, the book introduces us to the Kanaka and non-Kanaka characters who fought against statehood based on ideas of justice for Kanaka.” - Noenoe K. Silva, author of The Power of the Steel-Tipped Pen: Reconstructing Native Hawaiian Intellectual History

"Beautifully written and robustly theorized, Unsustainable Empire provides a much-needed intellectual, epistemological, and political intervention in multiple fields as it challenges the segregation of knowledge production in relation to Hawai‘i and the distinctions between indigeneity, race, and ethnicity. One of the book’s best features is its polished and refined way of retelling Hawaii’s history in a way that turns prevailing orthodoxy on its head, offering a sustained interrogation in an accessible and exciting way.” - J. Kehaulani Kauanui, author of Paradoxes of Hawaiian Sovereignty: Land, Sex, and the Colonial Politics of State Nationalism

"[Unsustainable Empire is] a very powerful book with which to teach about what it means to work across social movements." - Jaskiran Dhillon, Edge Effects

"Unsustainable Empire adds to scholarship on American nation-building, settler colonialism, statehood histories, and public relations politics and propaganda. The book should be a welcome addition to introductory-level history courses that deal with American empire or history and memory." - Julie Hawks, Journal of American Culture

"[Unsustainable Empire] is instructive for its truly intersectional analysis of white and Asian settler colonialisms, U.S. imperialism, and heteropatriarchy, as well as many exciting passages on Hawai‘i's militant labor movement.… The book is an urgent call to expose the web of lies that empire is built on so we can build truly sustainable futures that respect Indigenous values, land, and leadership."
  - Kim Compoc, Native American and Indigenous Studies

"Perhaps Saranillio’s most significant contribution is his rigorous theoretical analysis of settler colonialism and capitalism. . . . The most hopeful aspects of Saranillio’s work are the alternative futures made possible by a fuller understanding of Hawai‘i’s complex history. Such messaging is both necessarily encouraging and eminently useful for intellectuals employing decolonial methodologies—particularly those in settler-colonial contexts—and all those who seek a decolonized Hawai‘i." - Shannon Pomaika‘i Hennessey, The Contemporary Pacific