Bateman Illustrated history of New Zealand

by Matthew Wright

New Zealand's past has been a rollercoaster ride of hopes, dreams, wars and peace.

In his fully revised Illustrated History, noted historian Matthew Wright brings New Zealand's turbulent exciting past to life, tracing our journey from the arrival of Polynesians over 800 years ago, to the discovery by Europe, race relations, jingoism, devastating world wars, the age of the pavlova paradise, the turbulance of the Springbok tour protests and beyond.

Nearly 600 paintings, maps, sketches and photographs from the collection of the Alexander Turnbull Library highlight New Zealand's journey from past into Present.

488 pages, Paperback

First published October 11, 2004

About the author

Matthew Wright has qualifications in music, history and anthropology, among other fields, holds postgraduate degrees in history, and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society at University College, London. He published his first short story in 1976 and since the early 1980s has worked extensively as a writer, professional historian, reviewer and journalist. His work includes more than 500 articles, academic papers and reviews, and over 50 books on topics from travel guides to biography, engineering, earthquakes, transport, military and social history. He has a particular interest in the sciences.

Reviews

[Craig]

I recently visited the North Island on a choir concert tour. Never having been there before i decided to read a history. The pro's were that it was comprehensive and pretty balanced. For those who complain about him stressing the white/British part of the story, it may be true, but for better or for worse, it was those people who pushed the Māori out and created the country. That said, he tries to tell the story of Māori history pre-colonization, how they tried to survive as the British colony grew, how they lost their lands (often by selling it) their war against the British, (they actually held their own for awhile), a century as second class citizens, and the renaissance in recent years. The cons were that, for me, it was too much information, and the author spends too much time on economic statistics and other details that don't really matter to me. That plus he kept using Maori language terms that were not defined in the glossary. Maybe he was showing off. I enjoyed the illustrations. It would have been nice to have some maps.

So now, I know the story of New Zealand. I loved my time there and this knowledge gives me context.

[LibraryKath]

Another dry, mostly white man history of NZ. At least this one was illustrated.

[Emily McGoldrick]

really arrogant antagonist