The Oxford History Of New Zealand

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.

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.

"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.

This is the most comprehensive history of New Zealand literature to have been published. It offers chapters on the novel, poetry, and on the short story, which have been the staple of earlier histories and surveys, as well as sections on drama, non-ficiton, children's literature, popular literature, and the history of publishing, patronage and literary magazines. In this major new edition, material is provided on the period from 1986-1996, and a new chapter has been included on literary scholarship, criticism, and theory.

By any measure, New Zealand must confront monumental issues in the years ahead. From the future of work to climate change, wealth inequality to new populism – these challenges are complex and even unprecedented. Yet why does New Zealand’s political discussion seem so diminished, and our political imagination unequal to the enormity of these issues? And why is this gulf particularly apparent to young New Zealanders? These questions sit at the centre of Max Harris’s ‘New Zealand project’. This book represents, from the perspective of a brilliant young New Zealander, a vision for confronting the challenges ahead. Unashamedly idealistic, The New Zealand Project arrives at a time of global upheaval that demands new conversations about our shared future.

'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.