Women and Children Last: The Burning of the Emigrant Ship Cospatrick Charles R Clark University of Otago Press, $39.95, ISBN 187737214 5 This is the world’s most immigrant society. Every single person living here is either an immigrant or descended…
Political Leadership in New Zealand Raymond Miller and Michael Mintrom (ed) Auckland University Press, $50.00, ISBN 1869403584 One of my favourite leadership stories derives from the French Revolution. A self-styled revolutionary leader is enjoying a typically Parisian delight, his morning…
The Bookmen’s Dominion: Cultural Life in New Zealand 1920-1950 Chris Hilliard Auckland University Press, $34.99, ISBN 1869403622 Pat Lawlor’s “bookmen” or “frothblowers” were middle-aged men identifiable and, in a way, isolated not by such things as flamboyant attire, but by…
Theatre Country: Essays on Landscape and Whenua Geoff Park Victoria University Press, $39.95, ISBN 0864734573 In his excellent address to the New Zealand Landscape conference in 2003, included in Theatre Country under the title “A Moment in History”, Geoff Park…
The Tears of Harry Wakatipu Jack Lasenby Longacre Press, $18.99, ISBN 1877361437 Stories about individuals surviving in the wilderness have a long history. The Old Testament represents the wilderness as the place of escape from the oppression and corruption of…
Black November: The 1918 Influenza Pandemic in New Zealand Geoffrey W Rice University of Canterbury Press, $39.95, ISBN 1877257354 Survive Bird Flu and Other Disasters Bronwen King Hazard Press, $14.99, ISBN 1877393185 This week’s papers contain news of progress in…