The Shaping of History: Essays from The New Zealand Journal of History

by Judith Binney (Editor)

Examining various political and cultural histories from New Zealand, this collection of essays from leading historians explores the country's complex, multivoiced past. Writers such as Tipene O'Regan and Alan Ward analyze New Zealand's Treaty of Waitangi, which intended to establish a peaceful relationship between European settlers and the Maori indigenous population. Judith Binney and Claudia Orange discuss Maori language traditions and histories. Raewyn Dalziel, Barbara Brookes, and Dean Wilson trace the women's movement of the 1970s in New Zealand. R. C. J. Stone , Caroline Daley, and Miles Fairburn debate issues of 19th century New Zealand society. Essays from Erik Olssen and Keith Sinclair question the validity of historical "facts."

464 pages, Paperback

First published April 2, 2002

About the author

New Zealand historian, writer and Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Auckland. Her work focussed primarily on religion in New Zealand, especially the Māori Ringatū religion founded by Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki and continued by Rua Kenana. She also wrote extensively on the history of Ngāi Tūhoe.

Reviews

[William Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweeping spectrum of some cultural and historical issues within New Zealand. From an enlightened anthropological view of Māori history, the foundational miasma of Waitangi, the position of women, the advent of liberal land grabbing, the restrictive conservative stranglehold on reproductive rights, and nascent, persistent anti-immigration nationalism that is core to modern Australian and New Zealand mainstream politics. A handful of essays rather than core exposition of history, The Shaping of History is more for those already aware of fundamental historical nodes in New Zealand, or at least, to be read alongside Wikipedia or another, more broad and comprehensive historical review.