Building on new archaeological and historical research, Sumner La Croix has written a new economic history of Hawaii from the first Polynesian settlements through the present day. He shows how the political and economic institutions that emerged and evolved during Hawaii’s isolation from the rest of the world allowed an economically and culturally rich society to emerge, flourish, and ultimately survive annexation and colonization by the United States. La Croix’s talk focused on his analysis of the economic foundations of the reciprocity trade agreement between the United States and Hawaii and explained how the trade agreement and the expansion of the Hawaii sugar industry provided the foundations for the 1887 Bayonet Revolution and the 1893 overthrow of the monarchy.