The Penguin History Of New Zealand

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. The narrative that emerges in an inclusive one about men and women, Maori and Pakeha. It shows that British motives in colonising New Zealand were essentially humane; and that Maori, far from being passive victims of a 'fatal impact', coped heroically with colonisation and survived by selectively accepting and adapting what Western technology and culture had to offer. This book, a triumphant fruit of careful research, wide reading and judicious assessment, was an unprecedented best-seller from the time of its first publication in 2003.

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.

New Zealand in the 1820s had no government or bureaucratic presence; no newspapers were published; the literate population was probably no more than a couple of dozen people at any one time. Early explorers' assessments of New Zealand were haphazard at best - few knew what to make of this foreign land and its people. In this groundbreaking history of early New Zealand, Paul Moon details how so many of the events in this decade - the introduction of aggressive capitalism, the arrival of literacy and the beginnings of Maori print culture, intertribal warfare, Hongi Hika and the British connection, colonisation as a simultaneously destructive and beneficial force - influenced the nation's evolution over the remainder of the century. Moon leaves no stone unturned in his examination of this dynamic and fascinating pre-Treaty era. Surprising and engaging, A Savage Country does not merely recount events but takes us inside a changing country, giving a real sense of history as it happened. 'Paul Moon has produced an engrossing account of a singular, violent and confused decade in New Zealand's history.' Paul Little, North & South

Dramatic first hand accounts from New Zealand's history. A Kiwi survives the September 11 attack. The Scott Watson trial. When the Auckland lights went out. Baiting the French at Mururoa Atoll. The Share Market Crash. The 1981 Springbok Tour: from both sides. Mr Asia is rumbled. Saved from the sinking Wahine. Knocking off Mt Everest. The Tangiwai Disaster. The Waterfront Dispute. Kiwi soldiers routed in Crete. Japanese POWs mutiny in Featherstone. Cabinet hears Britain declare war on Germany. Horror in the Napier Earthquake. Landing at Gallipoli. Richard Seddon welcomes the All Blacks home. The Brunnerton Mine Disaster. Watching Minnie Dean being hanged. Trapped under Mt Tarawera ash. Signing the Treaty of Waitangi. Violence at Murderers Bay . . .