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A prime ministerial primer, Simon Upton

New Zealand’s Prime Ministers: From Dick Seddon to John Key Michael Bassett David Ling Publishing, $50.00, ISBN 9781927305294 New Zealand’s Prime Ministers is a very large volume. It is also an extremely ambitious one that is challenging as a through-read.…
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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

The Bassett version, Harvey McQueen

Working With David Michael Bassett Hachette Livre, $59.99, ISBN 9781869710941  Working With David is a dogmatic and humourless book about a man who, even in adversity, revelled in laughter. Beginning with clear praise – “at the peak of his career…
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Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Antipodean apparatchik, Barry Gustafson

Tomorrow Comes the Song: A Life of Peter Fraser Michael Bassett and Michael King Penguin Books, $49.95, ISBN 0140297936 The late Professor John Roberts once told me a story about his father “Big Jim” Roberts, nicknamed “the uncrowned King of…
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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

The perils of pragmatism, Tim Hazledine

The State in New Zealand 1840-1984: Socialism without doctrines? Michael Bassett Auckland University Press, $39.95, ISBN 1 86940 193 X Unlike George Lucas of Star Wars, Michael Bassett has decided to tell his story in chronological order. He had wanted…
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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Accentuating the positive, Tom Brooking

The Mother of AlI Departments. The History of the Department of Internal Affairs Michael Bassett Auckland University Press, $39.95 ISBN 1 869401751 Safeguarding the Public Health. A History of the New Zealand Department of Health Derek Dow Victoria University Press…
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Posted in Health, History, Non-fiction, Review

Austerity and fecundity, Michael Bassett

James Dilworth R C J Stone Dilworth Trust Books $49.95 ISBN 0 473 02990 1 Plain Living, High Thinking: The Family Story of Jennie and Will Lovell-Smith Margaret Lovell-Smith Pedmore Press $34.95 ISBN 0 473 03033 0 These two books…
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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

Pieces in the puzzle, Michael Bassett

John Banks: A Biography Paul Goldsmith Penguin Books, $34.95, ISBN 0 140 26712 3 Over recent years there has been some criticism of commissioned histories. An Australian academic, Louella McCarthy, writing in the New Zealand Journal of History in April…
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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

When “liberal and progressive” was OK, Simon Upton

Coates of Kaipara Michael Bassett Auckland University Press, $39.95, ISBN 1 869401174 For over a decade now public policy in New Zealand has been heavily infused with theory. Politicians have embraced expert advisers and internalised the “science” of economics with…
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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

Embers of hope, W H Oliver

Sir Joseph Ward: A Political Biography Michael Bassett, Auckland University Press, 1993, $39.95 There is a paradox in the 6 November election. Voters objecting to the trend of the past 10 years toward less and weaker government have, in their…
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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
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