.Audiobook Recommendation of the Day

.
.
.
Audiobook Recommendation of the Day




Unfamiliar Fishes – Unabridged




Sarah Vowell (Author, Narrator)




7 hours and 28 minutes




From Amazon -




"Many think of 1776 as the most defining year of American history, the year we became a nation devoted to the pursuit of happiness through self-government. In Unfamiliar Fishes, Sarah Vowell argues that 1898 might be a year just as crucial to our nation's identity, a year when, in an orgy of imperialism, the United States annexed Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam, and invaded Cuba and then the Philippines, becoming a meddling, self-serving, militaristic international superpower practically overnight.




Read by the author a cast that includes Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, John Hodgman, Catherine Keener, Edward Norton, Keanu Reeves, Paul Rudd, Maya Rudolph, and John Slattery. Music by Michael Giacchino with Grant Lee-Phillips. The score contains excerpts from "Hawai'i Pono'i" (words by David Kalakaua and music by Henri Berger) performed by Grant-Lee Phillips."




My comments:




I love history, especially when it's rendered so amusing and accessible. There are lessons for current times in this wry look at the past. Never boring, the obvious zealous blind spots of the missionaries are softened by their positive contributions and understandable unquestioning bias. Usually histories of the destruction of native peoples leaves me depressed and saddened, but I have mellowed over the years and Sarah Vowell's retelling of the annexation of Hawaii is not depressing at all.
.
.
.