Like all of Michener's works, Hawaii is based on extensive historical research. For this particular work, Michener and his Hawaiian expert, Mrs. Clarence V. Taylor, read or reviewed over five hundred books on Hawaii, New England, China, Japan, and the South Pacific.

In Hawaii, Michener originates the novelistic structure which insures his place as a major American popular author. In the first section, "From the Boundless Deep," Michener makes the land of Hawaii itself one of the most fascinating characters in the work. He describes the islands' formation from their geological birth in volcanic fire to the arrival of the birds and life on the islands before the voyages of the first human inhabitants. So impressive is this particular section that Life magazine printed it before Hawaii was published.

Each of the following sections describes the groups which come to inhabit the islands. Unifying the structure of each...