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.

With its closest neighbor some 1,200 miles away, New Zealand is one of the most geographically isolated countries in the world. Its remoteness led to its relatively late settlement. Brooking traces New Zealand from its earliest Maori settlers to issues in 2003, covering intertribal relations, the effects of European contact, the challenges of globalization, and more. The volume includes a timeline of historical events, biographical entries of notable people in the history of New Zealand, a glossary of Maori terms, and a bibliographic essay. With its closest neighbor some 1,200 miles away, New Zealand is one of the most geographically isolated countries in the world. Its remoteness led to its relatively late settlement. Brooking traces New Zealand from its earliest Maori settlers to issues in 2003, covering intertribal relations, the effects of European contact, the challenges of globalization, and more. The volume includes a timeline of historical events, biographical entries of notable people in the history of New Zealand, a glossary of Maori terms, and a bibliographic essay. This concise, engagingly written volume is ideal for students and general interest readers seeking information on New Zealand's history.

New Zealand was the last major landmass, other than Antarctica, to be settled by humans. The story of this rugged and dynamic land is beautifully narrated, from its origins in Gondwana some 80 million years ago to the twenty-first century. Philippa Mein Smith highlights the effects of the country's smallness and isolation, from its late settlement by Polynesian voyagers and colonisation by Europeans - and the exchanges that made these people Maori and Pakeha - to the dramatic struggles over land and recent efforts to manage global forces. A Concise History of New Zealand places New Zealand in its global and regional context. It unravels key moments - the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Anzac landing at Gallipoli, the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior - showing their role as nation-building myths and connecting them with the less dramatic forces, economic and social, that have shaped contemporary New Zealand.

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.

Explores why the political similarities between New Zealand and the United States--including democratic politics, mixed-enterprise economies, a deep concern for human rights and the rule of law and more--have taken on different forms.

What would a history of New Zealand look like that rejected Thomas Carlyle’s definition of history as ‘the biography of great men’, and focused instead on the experiences of women? One that shifted the angle of vision and examined the stages of this country’s development from the points of view of wives, daughters, mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and aunts? That considered their lives as distinct from (though often unwillingly influenced by) those of history’s ‘great men’? In her ground-breaking History of New Zealand Women, Barbara Brookes provides just such a history. This is more than an account of women in New Zealand, from those who arrived on the first waka to the Grammy and Man Booker Prize-winning young women of the current decade. It is a comprehensive history of New Zealand seen through a female lens. Brookes argues that while European men erected the political scaffolding to create a small nation, women created the infrastructure necessary for colonial society to succeed. Concepts of home, marriage and family brought by settler women, and integral to the developing state, transformed the lives of Māori women. The small scale of New Zealand society facilitated rapid change so that, by the twenty-first century, women are no longer defined by family contexts. In her long-awaited book, Barbara Brookes traces the factors that drove that change. Her lively narrative draws on a wide variety of sources to map the importance in women’s lives not just of legal and economic changes, but of smaller joys, such as the arrival of a piano from England, or the freedom of riding a bicycle.