The Penguin History of New Zealand
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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.
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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.
Liked The Penguin History of New Zealand? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked The Penguin History of New Zealand. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
“People who read The Penguin History of New Zealand tend to reach for these next.”
“If you want more of the same (history), start with these.”
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Making Peoples: A History of the New Zealanders: From Polynesian Settlement to the End of the Nineteenth Century
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The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict
- Tragedy at Pike River Mine: How and Why 29 Men Died
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Fairness and Freedom: A History of Two Open Societies: New Zealand and the United States
