Sublime
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Hawaiians' authenticity as an autochthonous people was and is often tied to their relationship to land and ocean.
Adria L. Imada • Aloha America: Hula Circuits through the U.S. Empire

contemporaneous with the triumphs of Vasco da Gama or Albuquerque in the Indian Ocean, or of Cortés and Pizarro in the Americas, were the consolidation of Ming absolutism, the emergence of a new world power in the Ottoman Empire, the reunion of Iran under the Safavids, the rapid expansion of Islam into South East Asia, and the creation of a vast
... See moreJohn Darwin • After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400-2000
Physical and social stress induced by the failure not just of a single harvest but of two or more failures within five years, followed by plague, are likely drivers of tensions among and between lordships, of reinforced psychological dependence on credible leadership and religion. The last imports of exotica from the Mediterranean landed on
... See moreMax Adams • The First Kingdom
Called “natural-born musicians,” Hawaiians were considered critical to military success.19
Adria L. Imada • Aloha America: Hula Circuits through the U.S. Empire
The first kings of Early Medieval Britain were not off-the-shelf products of a homogeneous history, geography or philosophy; they were experimenting with new forms of power born out of the necessity to rule self-identifying peoples and regions that generated a directly consumable surplus; by the needs of mobile lords and their warbands.
Max Adams • The First Kingdom
The Northumbrian army was resoundingly defeated; Æðelfrið was slain and his imperium died with him on the battlefield. By such strokes of fate Edwin succeeded to the Northumbrian kingdom. In victory, he was obliged to recognize Rædwald’s superiority, offering noble hostages to his court, sending gifts reflective of the honour in which he was held
... See moreMax Adams • The First Kingdom
Empire as a “way of life” in the islands remains visible yet nearly unspeakable even today, manifesting itself as the most “militouristic” zone of the United States.35
Adria L. Imada • Aloha America: Hula Circuits through the U.S. Empire
Imperial Hospitality