New Zealand > NZ - History

Ngamatea: The Land and the People is a very readable and impeccably researched account of a huge station in the central North Island, between the Kaimanawa and Kaweka Ranges, high and remote and often snow-covered in winter. This is the history of the station chiefly from the point of view of the people who lived and worked there. It is packed with good stories and the personalities, many eccentric and colourful, over several generations come vividly to life. The chapter on the big muster, which lasted eight months of the year, for... read more

Say Castlepoint to any New Zealander of a certain age, and they'll know where you mean. It's real Country Calendar country up here - what farmers call summer dry, and typical East Coast Wairarapa. Windswept cliff-top paddocks and rugged hills grow the best carpet wool in the world, and tough men and women have have lived on and worked the land for generations. The catch with Castlepoint is that all those generations haven't necessarily grown up there - the current owners are seventh-generation farmers from New York State, though w... read more

Shortlisted for the 2004 Montana NZ Book Awards, History section.New Zealand was the last country in the world to be discovered and settled by humankind. It was also the first to introduce full democracy. Between those events, and in the century that followed the franchise, the movements and the conflicts of human history have been played out more intensively and more rapidly in New Zealand than anywhere else on Earth.The Penguin History of New Zealand, a new book for a new century, tells that story in all its colour and drama. Th... read more

Treaty of Watangi simplified and explained.

Shear Hard Work tells the story of shearers and brings to life the world of the shearing shed for the first time. From the 1860s, when shearers were first identified as the 'very dregs of the colonial democracy', to the present day, when Kiwi shearers set world records and shear sheep around the globe, shearers have played a key role in New Zealand life. A historian and qualified wool classer, Riseborough has travelled from merino farms in Alexandra to the women's world record attempt at Waikaretu, from "the first Maori in Milton" ... read more

This book is a treasure trove of Christmas Kiwiana from down the years. Drawing on the Turnbull's extensive collection, the selection of utterly charming Christmas cards, Christmas Day dinner menus, photographs, recipes, advertisements and poster art show the various ways in which we've celebrated Christmas and our nation over time.

From the earliest days of European settlement in New Zealand, argues historian Danny Keenan, Maori struggled to hold on to their land. Tensions began early, arising from disputed land sales. When open conflict between Maori and Imperial forces broke out in the 1840s and 1860s, the struggles intensified. For both sides, land was at the heart of the conflict. When the fighting was over, the 'wars' for land spilled into the courts. This is the first book to approach this subject from a Maori point of view, focusing on the Maori resolv... read more

In 1895 a meeting took place in the rugged Urewera ranges - Tuhoe country - that would have lasting effects on our views of traditional Maori society. Elsden Best, a self-taught anthropologist and quartermaster on the road past Lake Waikaremoana, was sought out by a leading Tuhoe chief, Tutakangahau of Maungapohatu. The stories he gave to Best to be recorded for future generations are with us today. Best went on to become a noted Pakeha authority on a people he would style as the last of 'the oldtime Maori'. How much did the old ma... read more

The Waitangi Tribunal was established in 1975 to hear claims by Maori against the Crown arising under the Treaty of Waitangi. Today it sits at the heart of the Treaty settlement process, with a unique jurisdiction to investigate claims and make recommendations for a settlement. The Tribunal’s reports have come to stand at the centre of developing notions of 'justice' under the Treaty, and relay a version of our history previously ignored by the mainstream of New Zealand society. While the claims process has been... read more

From oyster bars and ordinaries to hotel dining rooms, from Dunedin’s Savoy to K Road’s Hi Diddle Griddle, from haute cuisine to Pacific flavours, from hogget to hapuka – Dining Out introduces us to the history of the New Zealand restaurant from the 1860s to the present. Drawing on menus, memories, photographs and newspapers, Perrin Rowland tells the story of New Zealand’s first nineteenth-century restaurants; luxury in the golden age; licensing and the Depression years; World War II and the Americans; post-war ... read more

In his bestselling Night after Night, Max Lambert wrote about New Zealanders in Bomber Command. In this long-awaited companion volume, he features their daytime counterparts - fighter pilots who fought in Europe, Asia and the Pacific during World War Two. From the mid-1930s to 1945, young New Zealanders in their hundreds trained as fighter pilots. Initially outnumbered, outgunned and effectively lambs to the slaughter, they were an intrepid part of Churchill's celebrated few, defending Britain and her allies. Against huge odds they... read more

Want to know about New Zealand's rich and fascinating history - but you're tight for time? Here's the answer; The Complete History of New Zealand (in less than two hours!). This concise guide is designed to tell you all you need to know about New Zealand's past in the time it takes to watch a movie. Whether you're a visitor, a student, a new citizen or a Kiwi who wants to know more, Peter Jessup relates the story of Aotearoa in a simple and user-friendly way.

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As the first history to encompass the entire century, New Zealand in the TwentiethCentury can be said to be following on from the survey histories of the last century. However, this epic work is much more than a traditional chronology of events. Rather, it brings to life in vivid detail the social, political, and culturallandscape of New Zealand in this period, and combines it with often intimate portrayals of people, places, ideas, and events that defined us as a nation.The result is a magnificently panoramic portrait of the count... read more

The census tells us that 8000 New Zealanders actively identify as Jewish and it is estimated that the broader population is probably around 25,000. There has never been an authoritative history of this country's Jewish population and yet people of Jewish descent (both secular and religious) have played vital roles in all aspects of our society throughout its history. Auckland alone has had five Jewish mayors. Jews have been prominent in New Zealand's business, cultural, intellectual, political, medical, intellectual life an... read more

New Zealanders choose to represent ourselves to the world wearing black - and not just the All Blacks, Tall Blacks and Silver Ferns. Many of our fashion designers choose black as the cornerstone of their collections, and a great deal of our cultural icons (think Fred Dagg) are also characterised by wearing black. BLACK is a gorgeously illustrated celebration and exploration of New Zealand's obsession with clothing ourselves in black - in society, power and politics, cultural icons, sport, fashion, film and music, from the Lit... read more

Has religion shaped, or been shaped by, New Zealand culture and society? How much and in what ways? Questions like these have generated lively debate in recent years, not least among historians. This important collection of essays offers fresh insights into those debates, and makes available new research into the history of Christian ideas, practices and institutions in New Zealand. These illuminate aspects of New Zealand’s Christian past and the place of Christianity in New Zealand history, as well as suggesting ways a... read more

'Marginalized' workers of the late twentieth century were those hired in times of plenty and first fired in times of recession. Often women, Maori, or people from the Pacific, they were frequently unemployed, and marginalised within the union movement as well as the labour force. Workers in the margins tells the story of these workers in the tumultuous years of post-war New Zealand. These were years characterised by massive changes in the workforce, as it expanded to accommodate a growing urban Maori population and an increasing... read more

The Great Divide, working from the original documents from 200 years ago, directly challenges the findings of books like Michael King’s Penguin History of New Zealand or Claudia Orange’s Treaty of Waitangi, and in doing so offers a fresh new perspective on an issue affecting every single New Zealander. Among the book’s findings, all fully supported with documentary citations: • The scientifically-documented discovery of stone tools five metres underground, beneath ancient forests in the South Island a... read more

The Three Mile Bush straddled the road between Greytown and Masterton, settled in 1854. In 1856 the Wellington Provincial Council decided to establish a new settlement on the road through the area, soon to be renamed Caterton. The Look Of Caterton tells of the town's and district's beginnings and progress over the last 150 years. The informative text marks the milestones along the decades from the early sawmilling era to today's bustling service town, but the story is principally told through a collection of photographs that insta... read more