A Savage Country

Author: Paul Moon
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand Limited
ISBN: 1742532438
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386

Book Description
New Zealand in the 1820s had no government or bureaucratic presence; no newspapers were published; the literate population was probably no more than a couple of dozen people at any one time. Early explorers' assessments of New Zealand were haphazard at best - few knew what to make of this foreign land and its people. In this groundbreaking history of early New Zealand, Paul Moon details how so many of the events in this decade - the introduction of aggressive capitalism, the arrival of literacy and the beginnings of Maori print culture, intertribal warfare, Hongi Hika and the British connection, colonisation as a simultaneously destructive and beneficial force - influenced the nation's evolution over the remainder of the century. Moon leaves no stone unturned in his examination of this dynamic and fascinating pre-Treaty era. Surprising and engaging, A Savage Country does not merely recount events but takes us inside a changing country, giving a real sense of history as it happened. 'Paul Moon has produced an engrossing account of a singular, violent and confused decade in New Zealand's history.' Paul Little, North & South

Encounters: The Creation of New Zealand

Author: Paul Moon
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand Limited
ISBN: 1742539181
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 763

Book Description
'Throughout its human history, New Zealand has been interpreted and experienced in often radically different ways. Each wave of arrivals to its shores has left its own set of views of New Zealand on the country – applying a new coat of mythology and understanding to the landscape, usually without fully removing the one that lies beneath it.' Encounters is the wide-ranging, audacious and gripping story of New Zealand's changing national identity, how it has emerged and evolved through generations. In this genre-busting book, historian Paul Moon delves into how the many and conflicting ideas about New Zealand came into being. Along the way, he explores forgotten crevices of the nation's character, and exposes some of the mythology of its past and present. These include, for example, the earliest Maori myths and the 'mock sacredness' of the All Blacks in the twenty-first century; the role of nostalgia in our national character, both Maori and Pakeha; whether the explorer Kupe existed; the appeal of the Speight's 'Southern Man'; and ruminations on New Zealand art and landscape. What results is an absorbing piece of scholarship, an imaginative and exuberant epic that will challenge preconceptions about what it means to be a New Zealander, and how our country is understood. Lyrical, breathtaking and provocative, and illustrated with artworks throughout, Encounters offers an extraordinary insight into the beginnings of our country.

The Voyagers: Remarkable European Explorations of New Zealand

Author: Paul Moon
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand Limited
ISBN: 1742539408
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 370

Book Description
Caught in the crossfire of inter-tribal wars, witnesses to cannibalism and to scenes of both ethereal beauty and chilling terror - the early European explorers of New Zealand were a diverse group of individuals who undertook voyages of sometimes epic proportions through the country. In The Voyagers, Paul Moon tells dramatic stories of Europeans discovering and exploring New Zealand during the first half of the 1800s. Ocean adventures, cross-country trekking, imperial and spiritual conquests, first contacts with Maori, artists seeking the 'sublime', scientific discovery and commercial pursuits all intertwine to form a fascinating portrait of a land undergoing immense change. Jules Dumont d'Urville, Samuel Marsden, Ferdinand von Hochstetter and Charles Heaphy complement an array of lesser known but no less intrepid explorers - soldiers and sailors, travellers and settlers, missionaries, artists and officials - all of whom ventured from their homelands in search of new horizons. The Voyagers is a perceptive and absorbing account of nineteenth-century exploration, and of the very human characters who helped put New Zealand on the map. Also available as an eBook 'Fascinating and revealing . . . this well written and illustrated book is in keeping with the best of [Moon's] many works on New Zealand history.' --Waikato Times 'Offers particular insights into a largely unmapped land and its people . . . very accessible . . . a fascinating, cohesive story.' --Dominion Post

Historical Dictionary of New Zealand

Author: Janine Hayward
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442274395
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 529

Book Description
Diverse elements have created New Zealand’s distinctive political and social culture. First is New Zealand’s journey as a colony, and the various impacts this had on settler and Maori society. The second theme is the quest for what one prominent historian has labelled ‘national obsessions’ – equality and security, both individual and collective. The third, and more recent, theme is New Zealand’s emergence as a nation with a unique identity. New Zealand’s small geographic size and relative isolation from other societies, the dominant influence of British culture, the resurgence of Maori language and culture, the endemic instability of an economy based on a narrow range of pastoral products, and the dominance of the state in the lives of its people, all help to explain much of the present-day New Zealand psyche. This third edition of Historical Dictionary of New Zealand contains a chronology, an introduction, appendix, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 800 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about New Zealand.

Colonising New Zealand

Author: Paul Moon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000435210
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 409

Book Description
Colonising New Zealand offers a radically new vision of the basis and process of Britain’s colonisation of New Zealand. It commences by confronting the problems arising from subjective and ever-evolving moral judgements about colonisation and examines the possibility of understanding colonisation beyond the confines of any preoccupations with moral perspectives. It then investigates the motives behind Britain’s imperial expansion, both in a global context and specifically in relation to New Zealand. The nature and reasons for this expansion are deciphered using the model of an organic imperial ecosystem, which involves examining the first cause of all colonisation and which provides a means of understanding why the disparate parts of the colonial system functioned in the ways that they did. Britain’s imperial system did not bring itself into being, and so the notion of the Empire having emerged from a supra-system is assessed, which in turn leads to an exploration of the idea of equilibrium-achievement as the Prime Mover behind all colonisation—something that is borne out in New Zealand’s experience from the late eighteenth century. This work changes profoundly the way New Zealand’s colonisation is interpreted, and provides a framework for reassessing all forms of imperialism.

This Horrid Practice

Author: Paul Moon
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand Limited
ISBN: 1742287050
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386

Book Description
'Though stronger evidence of this horrid practice prevailing among the inhabitants of this coast will scarcely be required, we have still stronger to give.' - Captain James Cook This Horrid Practice uncovers an unexplored taboo of New Zealand history - the widespread practice of cannibalism in pre-European Maori society. Until now, many historians have tried to avoid it and many Maori have considered it a subject best kept quiet about in public. Paul Moon brings together an impressive array of sources from a variety of disciplines to produce this frequently contentious but always stimulating exploration of how and why Maori ate other human beings, and why the practice shuddered to a halt just a few decades after the arrival of Europeans in New Zealand. The book includes a comprehensive survey of cannibalism practices among traditional Maori, carefully assessing the evidence and concluding it was widespread. Other chapters look at how explorers and missionaries saw the practice; the role of missionaries and Christianity in its end; and, in the final chapter, why there has been so much denial on the subject and why some academics still deny that it ever happened. This Horrid Practice promises to be one of the leading works of New Zealand history published in 2008. It is a highly original work that every New Zealand history enthusiast will want to own and read.

The Rise and Fall of James Busby

Author: Paul Moon
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350116661
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Book Description
One of the British Empire's most troubling colonial exports in the 19th-century, James Busby is known as the father of the Australian wine industry, the author of New Zealand's Declaration of Independence and a central figure in the early history of independent New Zealand as its British Resident from 1833 to 1840. Officially the man on the ground for the British government in the volatile society of New Zealand in the 1830s, Busby endeavoured to create his own parliament and act independently of his superiors in London. This put him on a collision course with the British Government, and ultimately destroyed his career. With a reputation as an inept, conceited and increasingly embittered person, this caricature of Busby's character has slipped into the historical bloodstream where it remains to the present day. This book draws on an extensive range of previously-unused archival records to reconstruct Busby's life in much more intimate form, and exposes the back-room plotting that ultimately destroyed his plans for New Zealand. It will alter the way that Britain's colonisation of New Zealand is understood, and will leave readers with an appreciation of how individuals, more than policies, shaped the Empire and its rule.

The Struggle for Tamaki Makaurau

Author: Paul Moon
Publisher: David Ling Publishing
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Book Description
"This book offers a concise survey of Auckland's history in the centuries before European involvement. From the first Polynesian arrivals, through to the growth of the isthmus, and the devastating invasion that altered its entire political make-up in the mid-1700s, This book uncovers a truly fascinating history of the region, and will cause many Aucklanders to see their city in an entirely new light."--Back cover.

The Drama of Conservation

Author: Carolyn M. King
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319184105
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 367

Book Description
This book offers a sweeping history of Pureora Forest Park, one of the most significant sites of natural and cultural history interest in New Zealand. The authors review the geological history of the volcanic zone, its flora and fauna, and the history of Maori and European utilization of forest resources. Chapter-length discussions cover management of the native forest by the New Zealand Forest Service; the forest village and its sawmills; the intensive timber harvesting, and the conflicts with conservationists and expensive compensation agreements that ensued. Separate chapters cover initiatives to protect the forest from introduced herbivores; to guard protected species, especially birds, from predators; the facilities for recreational hunting; the development of the Timber Trail, an 83 km cycleway through the forest and along old logging tramways, complete with detailed interpretation signs illustrating the history of logging; and the family recreation areas and tracks. The final chapter gathers conclusions and advances prospects for the future of Pureora Forest. In sum, the book demonstrates how ecological study, combined with a respect for people and for nature plus a flexible, interdisciplinary approach to both local history and current scientific priorities, can be welded into a consistently effective strategy for addressing the pressing forest-ecology questions of our time.

A Tohunga's Natural World

Author: Paul Moon
Publisher: David Ling Publishing
ISBN: 9781877378041
Category : Ahu Mara
Languages : en
Pages : 149

Book Description