I am a professor of Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi and enjoyed your article on the examination of state power and sovereignty. I am attracted to Foucault because the subtleties of power and authority make great lectures and allow for intriguing analysis in student papers. But my book Dismembering Lahui, which is a history of the formation of the Hawaiian Kingdom as an independent state actually examines the ironies of power and how the creation of a modern government, intended to protect the sovereignty of the Hawaiian people, actually undermined it.

I found only one word that I disagreed with in your article. I did not think it was irony that Republicans could celebrate McCain’s refusal to bend under torture while still believing that torture could be usefully employed against Islam. I think that the same people who believe that torture is effective also believe that good people can and will resist it–a kind of witch trial that is deeply ingrained in American practice. Another possibility is that it is simply vengeance. I don’t know which of the two is more disturbing.

Jonathan K. Osori
Professor Center for Hawaiian Studies
University of Hawaiʻi Manoa

An interesting article. I’m sorry not to have keyed in to CE’s call for papers on Lincoln and rhetoric. It’s a good topic, and I would have worked on something to submit.

John Briggs
Professor of English
Director, University Writing Program
UC Riverside