Do not be misled by the title of this book. While it does describe a strike carried out by sugar-cane workers, its reach and implications are much broader than that focus might suggest. Masayo Duus has succeeded in telling the microhistory of this strike and a murky, perhaps related episode of a dynamite explosion at a plantation supervisor's home, while at the same time making some important points about the history of Japanese immigration to Hawaii and California, the response of haole (white) elites in Hawaii and mainstream politicians on the mainland, and global connections in the history of labor politics.