Blog Archives
Revisiting the 1930s, Tony Simpson
The Broken Decade: Prosperity, Depression and Recovery in New Zealand 1928–1939 Malcolm McKinnon Otago University Press, $50.00, ISBN 9781927322260 In 1968, I left my home town of Christchurch and came to Wellington to work as a producer in radio in…
Tagged with: Issue 118, Malcolm McKinnon, Otago University Press, Tony Simpson, Winter 2017
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology
With the Second Division, Tony Simpson
A Bloody Road Home: World War Two and New Zealand’s Heroic Second Division Christopher Pugsley Penguin, $70.00 ISBN 9780143571896 It might seem strange that we have had to wait seven decades from the conclusion of WWII for a comprehensive history…
Tagged with: Christopher Pugsley, Issue 115, Penguin Books, Spring 2016, Tony Simpson
Posted in Non-fiction, Review, War
Posted in Non-fiction, Review, War
Putting the Treaty in a discursive context, Jim McAloon
Before Hobson Tony Simpson Blythswood Press, $38.00, ISBN 9780473312848 Tony Simpson has been writing history for a general, rather than academic, readership for a long time and to good effect. His aim in this book is to situate the Treaty…
Tagged with: Blythswood Press, Issue 111, Jim McAloon, Spring 2015, Tony Simpson
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
War means stories, David Hill
Ambiguity and Innocence: The New Zealand Division and the Occupation of Trieste, May 1945 Tony Simpson Silver Owl Press, $35.00, ISBN 9780986451980 The Battles of Monte Cassino: The Campaign and its Consequences Glyn Harper and John Tonkin-Covell Allen and Unwin,…
Tagged with: Allen and Unwin, David Hill, Glyn Harper, Issue 104, John Tonkin-Covell, Silver Owl Press, Summer 2013, Tony Simpson
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, War
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, War
Gentleman’s agreement, Tony Simpson
Other People’s Wars: New Zealand in Afghanistan, Iraq and the War on Terror Nicky Hager Craig Potton Publishing, $45.00, ISBN 9781877517693 About a year ago, shortly after this book was published, I heard Nicky Hager in an interview deploring the…
Tagged with: Craig Potton Publishing, Issue 100, Nicky Hager, Summer 2012, Tony Simpson
Posted in Non-fiction, War
Posted in Non-fiction, War
Coming here, Tony Simpson
No Simple Passage Jenny Robin Jones Random House, $45.00, ISBN 9781869795108 We are all increasingly fascinated by our origins. And as recollection turns into memory and then into family anecdote, we go looking for these origins in documentation. This,…
Tagged with: Issue 95, Jenny Robin Jones, Random House, Spring 2011, Tony Simpson
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Like granny used to, Tony Simpson
New Zealand Food and Cookery David Burton David Bateman, $59.99, ISBN 9781860537289 Over the last two or three years it has been almost impossible to turn on the television in the early evening or to go into a bookshop…
Tagged with: David Bateman, David Burton, Issue 91, Spring 2010, Tony Simpson
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
English spoken here, Tony Simpson
Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and Rise of the Anglo World 1783-1939 James Belich Oxford University Press, $50.00, ISBN 9780199297276 In an interview with The New Zealand Listener shortly after this book was published, the author posed an interesting…
Tagged with: Issue 88, James Belich, Oxford University Press, Summer 2009, Tony Simpson
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Less English than the English, Tony Simpson
Settlers: New Zealand Immigrants From England, Ireland and Scotland 1800 to 1945 Jock Phillips and Terry Hearn Auckland University Press, $39.99, ISBN 9781869404017 Over the next few years, our official historians have announced, they will concentrate attention on our immigrant…
Tagged with: Auckland University Press, Issue 84, Jock Phillips, Summer 2008, Terry Hearn, Tony Simpson
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review