Cultural mobilisation, Philippa Mein Smith
Calls to Arms: New Zealand Society and Commitment to the Great War Steven Loveridge Victoria University Press, $40.00. ISBN 9780864739674. Impressed by the Blackadder account of WWI when he was a...
View ArticleCaptions and context, David Littlewood
The Anzacs: An Inside View of New Zealanders at Gallipoli Auckland War Memorial Museum Penguin, $45.00, ISBN 9780143572336 Brothers in Arms: Gordon and Robin Harper in the Great War Jock Phillips with...
View ArticlePutting 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...
View ArticleCulture wars, ancient and modern, Hugh Roberts
The Critic’s Part: Wystan Curnow Art Writings 1971-2013 Wystan Curnow Adam Art Gallery/Victoria University Press, $80.00, ISBN 9780864739322 Then It Was Now Again: Selected Critical Writing Murray...
View ArticleThe courage of her convictions, Rebecca Rice
Grace Joel: An Impressionist Portrait Joel L Schiff Otago University Press, $45.00, ISBN 9781877578861 Miss Grace Joel displays the courage of her convictions. The work is obviously not a pot-boiler;...
View ArticleTangata ora, Matariki Williams
Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney and Aroha Harris Bridget Williams Books, $100.00, ISBN 9781927131411 The final chapter of the weighty Tangata Whenua is titled...
View ArticleRejecting meat, Alison McKee
The Compassionate Contrarians: A History of Vegetarians in Aotearoa New Zealand Catherine Amey Rebel Press, $20.00, IBSN 9780473274405 New Zealanders are prolific buyers of cookery books; however, an...
View ArticleLooking for home, David Cohen
Barefoot Years Martin Edmond Bridget Williams Books, $15.00, ISBN 9781927277676 On Coming Home Paula Morris Bridget Williams Books, $15.00, ISBN 9780908321117 Somewhere in the course of his perceptive...
View ArticleByzantine complexity, Geoffrey Palmer
Democracy in New Zealand Raymond Miller Auckland University Press, $45.00, ISBN 9781869408350 Democracy in New Zealand is a competent work by an experienced and well-published Professor of Politics at...
View ArticlePermolat and dogbox bivs, Hannah McGregor
Tramping: A New Zealand History Shaun Barnett and Chris Maclean Craig Potton, $70.00, ISBN 9781927213230 Tramping: A New Zealand History travels lightly through terrain which will feel familiar to many...
View ArticleTheory vs practice, Colin Knox
The Intangibles of Managing A J (Tone) Borren Dunmore Press, $29.95 ISBN 0864692390 The New Zealand Small Business Guide Richard Higham and Sara Williams Penguin, $29.95 (revised edition) ISBN...
View ArticleIn the pain, the pleasure, Mark Reason
The Invisible Mile David Coventry Victoria University Press, $30.00 ISBN 9781776560431 David Coventry had a very good idea, perhaps a brilliant idea, of turning the 1928 Tour de France into an odyssey....
View ArticleThe thinking man’s cartoonist, Dylan Horrocks
Brockie: A Memoir in Words, Cartoons and Sketches Bob Brockie New Zealand Cartoon Archive/Fraser Books, $39.50 ISBN 9780958232074 David Lange called Brockie “the thinking man’s cartoonist”. Which is...
View ArticleSo wide, can’t get around it, John Newton
James K Baxter: Complete Prose John Weir (ed) Victoria University Press, $200.00, ISBN 9781776560370 James K Baxter’s Collected Poems which appeared in 1979 remains the most monumental object in New...
View ArticleMoss, C K Stead
Maurice Gee: Life and Work Rachel Barrowman Victoria University Press, $60.00 ISBN 9780864739926 When I was young, New Zealand fiction had three Maurices. Duggan (“Maurice”) was the maestro, Gee...
View ArticleDangerous confusion, Tim Hazledine
The Fire Economy: New Zealand’s Reckoning Jane Kelsey Bridget Williams Books, $50.00, ISBN 9781927247839 “Imagine,” said the great physicist Richard Feynman, “how much harder physics would be if...
View ArticleThe colony’s resident expert of choice, Simon Upton
James Hector: Explorer, Scientist, Leader Simon Nathan Geoscience Society of New Zealand, $45.00 ISBN 9781877480461 Simon Nathan’s biography of Sir James Hector fills a major gap in the nation’s...
View ArticleNot just bits of cloth, Jennifer Shennan
New Zealand’s Historic Samplers – Our Stitched Stories Vivien Caughley David Bateman, $50.00 ISBN 9781869538668 Vivien Caughley’s opening definition of a sampler is “an embroidered cloth which records...
View ArticleOn a human scale, Felicity Barnes
Holding on to Home: New Zealand Stories and Objects of the First World War Kate Hunter and Kirstie Ross Te Papa Press, $50.00, ISBN 9780987668851 One hundred years on, WWI continues to loom large in...
View ArticleVoices from the past, Jock Phillips
Remembering Gallipoli: Interviews with New Zealand Gallipoli Veterans Christopher Pugsley and Charles Ferrall (eds) Victoria University Press, $40.00 ISBN 9780864739919 Amid the flood of printed words...
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