The Oxford History of New Zealand


Book Description

When The Oxford History of New Zealand was first published in 1981 it was acclaimed as the standard reference. The turbulent 1980s have changed much about the way we see New Zealand and its history. Some of these new ways of regarding the past have arisen, directly or obliquely, from the activities of the Waitangi tribunal and the wealth of scholarship, Maori and Pakeha, which now surrounds the treaty of Waitangi. Others come from the events of the 1980s, with their profound social, political, and economic consequences. This new edition provides coverage of the last decade, and takes account of recent historical writing. Six new chapters have been added, and many others have been enlarged or updated, making this a substantially revised and expanded second edition. As before, the book draws upon the work of archaeologists, social scientists, economists, historians, and critics, to provide a comprehensive account of New Zealand's past from the first Polynesian settlement to the present day. Like its predecessor, it is essential reading for every student, scholar, and teacher of New Zealand history, and for the general reader, curious to know about New Zealand's past.




The Oxford Illustrated History of New Zealand


Book Description

Bringing one thousand years of history to life, this is an illustrated history of New Zealand from the settlement by Polynesians to the present day. The book covers the period of colonisation after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the wars between the Maori and the British Army of the 1860s, the beginning of party government in the 1890s, votes for women in 1893, fighting in South Africa and Europe, the Depression, the Maori drift to towns, the influx of Pacific Islanders, and the economic reforms since the fourth Labour Government. Each chapter has been written by an acknowledged expert in his or her field, and a new chapter by Dr Jack Vowles brings the book fully up to date.







The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History


Book Description

"This book is the most comprehensive guide yet to New Zealand's rich and varied military history. It is supplemented with 150 photographs and more than forty maps, as well as lists of important office-holders. It is a must for students, specialists, and anyone interested in New Zealand's military history and the effect of war on its society."--BOOK JACKET.




Fairness and Freedom


Book Description

From one of America's preeminent historians comes a magisterial study of the development of open societies focusing on the United States and New Zealand




The New Oxford History of New Zealand


Book Description

The New Oxford History of New Zealand is a new, multi-authored revisionist history of Aotearoa New Zealand. The book tests the idea that New Zealand history can be explained as a quest for 'national identity' and considers whether narratives that rely on the 'colony-to-nation' storyline are still relevant in the early twenty-first century. The book proposes instead that history and identity have been shaped by culture, community, class, region and gender, and that these have been more important than ideas of evolving nationhood. Above all, this new book responds to the need for a general re-interpretation of the 'big picture' of New Zealand history.




Making Peoples


Book Description

Now in paper This immensely readable book, full of drama and humor as well as scholarship, is a watershed in the writing of New Zealand history. In making many new assertions and challenging many historical myths, it seeks to reinterpret our approach to the past. Given New Zealand's small population, short history, and great isolation, the history of the archipelago has been saddled with a reputation for mundanity. According to James Belich, however, it is just these characteristics that make New Zealand "a historian's paradise: a laboratory whose isolation, size, and recency is an advantage, in which the grand themes of world history are often played out more rapidly, more separately, and therefore more discernably, than elsewhere." The first of two planned volumes, Making Peoples begins with the Polynesian settlement and its development into the Maori tribes in the eleventh century. It traces the great encounter between independent Maoridom and expanding Europe from 1642 to 1916, including the foundation of the Pakeha, the neo-Europeans of New Zealand, between the 1830s and the 1880s. It describes the forging of a neo-Polynesia and a neo-Britain and the traumatic interaction between them. The author carefully examines the myths and realities that drove the colonialization process and suggests a new "living" version of one of the most critical and controversial documents in New Zealand's history, the Treaty of Waitangi, frequently descibed as New Zealand's Magna Carta. The construction of peoples, Maori and Pakeha, is a recurring theme: the response of each to the great shift from extractive to sustainable economics; their relationship with their Hawaikis, or ancestors, with each other, and with myth. Essential reading for anyone interested in New Zealand history and in the history of new societies in general.




The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature


Book Description

'The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature' contains more than 1500 alphabetically arranged entries on writers, novels, plays, poetry, journals, periodicals, anthologies, literary movements and professional organizations.




Ghosts of Gondwana


Book Description

Have you ever wondered why New Zealand's plants and animals are so different from those in other countries? Why kakapo is the only parrot in the world that cannot fly, or why the kiwi lives here and nowhere else? New Zealand is an extraordinary place, unique on earth, and the remarkable story of how and why life evolved here is the subject of Ghosts of Gondwana. The challenge of explaining New Zealand's natural origins is picked up in this fully revised edition of the popular award-winning book. It presents the latest scientific research in highly readable form, highlighting studies that reveal the deep historical background of our landscapes, fauna and flora - from ancient frogs and moa to delicate insects and the magnificent southern beech forests. It introduces the latest discoveries and resolves past issues like the 'Oligocene drowning' hypothesis. Exciting fossil discoveries are revealed and new scientific technologies and approaches to the discipline of historical biogeography are discussed - approaches that range from undersea geology to molecular clocks - and it inevitably draws attention to the debates and conflicts that distinguish different schools of opinion in this holistic branch of theoretical science. This revision incorporates the results of 10 years of intensive scientific research and includes four entirely new chapters to: focus on 'yesterday's maps' to draw attention to the ephemeral islands in our history that have possibly acted as stepping stones for terrestrial animals and plants but today have sunk into the sea; incorporate the author's own special interest in an ancient group of 'jaw-moths', unknown and unnoticed by most people but with a strong message that New Zealand is part of the world when it comes to explaining where our fauna have come from; present recent research findings on our huge flightless birds, the ratites; and include New Zealand's terrestrial molluscs into the story. Ghosts of Gondwana identifies New Zealand as one of the most challenging places on earth to explain, but it's readable, engaging style and revised illustrations render this often-controversial discipline of science into a format that is accessible to any reader with an interest in natural history and the unique environment of New Zealand.




The Great War for New Zealand


Book Description

Spanning nearly two centuries from first contact through to settlement and apology, ​this major work focuses on the human impact of the war in the Waikato, its origins and aftermath.