New Zealand in the Twentieth Century: The Nation, the People

by Paul Moon

A major popular history of the New Zealand experience in the twentieth century, from a fresh new perspective This is an accessible social history of life in New Zealand throughout the twentieth century, a time before most of us were born, as well as a period within which most of us have lived. Superbly researched and carefully chosen incidents and passages of history have been selected to tell our story, using diary entries, newspaper quotes, parliamentary records and a wide and diverse reading of the social record. Paul Moon brings our immediate past to life through common themes we can all understand. While commerce, politics and racial integration are obvious choices, less obvious but equally relevant are the changing fashions in clothing, architecture, music and how we shopped, drank and entertained ourselves. As the first to encompass the entire century, Paul Moon can be said to be continuing the work of emminent historians, such as the late Michael King and Keith Sinclair.His book examines those aspects of our history that have defined us as a nation, a process that may have begun in the nineteenth century, but gathered speed as we moved away from our colonial origins and towards independent nationhood. While researched with academic rigour, the book is nonetheless nonacademic. In this superb and significant new work, New Zealanders of every persuasion can trace their stories and see how they fit into the cultural mix that makes us all Kiwi.

672 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Dr Paul Moon is Professor of History at Auckland University of Technology. Among his twenty-five published books are A Savage Country: The untold story of New Zealand in the 1820s; This Horrid Practice: The myth and reality of traditional Maori cannibalism; A History of New Zealand in the Twentieth Century; biographies of Governors Hobson, FitzRoy and the Ngāpuhi chief Hone Heke; and Encounters: The creation of New Zealand, which was shortlisted for the 2014 Australasian Ernest Scott Prize in History.