"Highly recommended for all libraries." --Choice, July 2001

"Impressive" --American Reference Books Annual 34 (2003)

"A valuable resource" --Journal of the Polynesian Society 113 (2004)

"A genuinely authoritative, encyclopedic treatment of the islands of the Pacific, drawing on the expertise of hundreds of Pacific scholars and writers.... The 40-some subjects are organized into major sections covering the physical environment, peoples, history, politics, economy, society, culture, and island profiles, as well as some 200 brief biographies of important figues." --Reference and Research Book News

"Valuable and handsome ... The book is a pleasure to browse through, for the text is easy to read, well sign-posted, and amply punctuated with photos and maps, and information on the contributors is readily accessible. The volume will certainly be an essential desk-top reference." --Journal of Pacific Studies 25 (2001)

"Überhaupt lässt es sich kaum vorstellen, dass jemand, der sich in Zukunft mit irgendeiner der pazifischen Inseln näher beschäftigt, ohne dieses Werk aukommen kann." --Jahrbuch für Europäische Überseegeschichte 3 (2003)

"At last, a single-volume reference book on the Pacific islands, filling a tremendous need. Readable and informative, this useful book will be welcomed by students and teachers, by those living in the Pacific region as well as visitors and tourists, by specialists and also the wider non-specialist reading public." --Kerry Howe, Massey University

The vast geographic expanse of the Pacific--with its elaborate geological history, the mysteries surrounding its settlement, the diversity of its cultures, its long and varied colonial histories--has been the subject of countless books and articles, but few attempts have been made to produce a comprehensive compendium of this remarkable region in all its variety and complexity. The Pacific Islands: An Encyclopedia brings together in one place for the first time information on major aspects of Pacific island life (the physical environment, peoples, history, politics, economy, society, and culture) compiled by some of the world's leading scholars from the Pacific, the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan.

Unlike conventional encyclopedias, which present objective, uncontroversial facts, this work acknowledges the complex dialectics between the past and the present and the politics of representing other people and cultures and reflects these new intellectual developments, particularly in the longer essays. In addition, The Pacific Islands is organized according to broad subject areas to avoid the fragmentation that arises from an alphabetical arrangement and to furnish readers with more richly contextualized information.

The accompanying CD-ROM version of the encyclopedia allows readers to exploit the search and navigation potentials of the medium. It contains hyperlinks between cross-referenced section titles and sections, a library of all the maps reproduced in the encyclopedia, and a photo library.

Brij V. Lal is professor and director, Centre for the Contemporary Pacific, Australian National University. Kate Fortune is executive editor and research associate, Division of Pacific and Asian History, Australian National University.

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