Welina mai nei ke aloha.

The Department of History at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa offers degree programs at the BA, MA, and PhD levels and is comprised of award-winning teachers and researchers.

Our geographical location facilitates our expertise in Asian, Hawaiian, Pacific, and World histories, as well as the American and European pasts. History majors find success in a variety of careers from teaching, research, and advocacy, to government service, journalism, law and business. The possibilities are endless. And we are here to help you navigate the way to your future.

In the Spotlight

Cheehyung Harrison Kim’s Recently Published Book

HEROES AND TOILERS: WORK AS LIFE IN POSTWAR NORTH KOREA, 1953-1961

In search of national unity and state control in the decade following the Korean War, North Korea turned to labor. Mandating rapid industrial growth, the government stressed order and consistency in everyday life at both work and home. Cheehyung Harrison Kim traces the state’s pursuit of progress through industrialism and examines how ordinary people challenged it every step of the way. Even more than coercion or violence, he argues, work was crucial to state control. Heroes and Toilers offers an unprecedented account of life and labor in postwar North Korea that brings together the roles of governance and resistance.