New Zealand was the last country in the world to be discovered and settled by humankind. It was also the first to introduce full democracy. Between those events, and in the century that followed the franchise, the movements and the conflicts of human history have been played out more intensively and more rapidly in New Zealand than anywhere else on Earth. The Penguin History of New Zealand, a new book for a new century, tells that story in all its colour and drama. The narrative that emerges in an inclusive one about men and women, Maori and Pakeha. It shows that British motives in colonising New Zealand were essentially humane; and that Maori, far from being passive victims of a 'fatal impact', coped heroically with colonisation and survived by selectively accepting and adapting what Western technology and culture had to offer. This book, a triumphant fruit of careful research, wide reading and judicious assessment, was an unprecedented best-seller from the time of its first publication in 2003.

With its closest neighbor some 1,200 miles away, New Zealand is one of the most geographically isolated countries in the world. Its remoteness led to its relatively late settlement. Brooking traces New Zealand from its earliest Maori settlers to issues in 2003, covering intertribal relations, the effects of European contact, the challenges of globalization, and more. The volume includes a timeline of historical events, biographical entries of notable people in the history of New Zealand, a glossary of Maori terms, and a bibliographic essay. With its closest neighbor some 1,200 miles away, New Zealand is one of the most geographically isolated countries in the world. Its remoteness led to its relatively late settlement. Brooking traces New Zealand from its earliest Maori settlers to issues in 2003, covering intertribal relations, the effects of European contact, the challenges of globalization, and more. The volume includes a timeline of historical events, biographical entries of notable people in the history of New Zealand, a glossary of Maori terms, and a bibliographic essay. This concise, engagingly written volume is ideal for students and general interest readers seeking information on New Zealand's history.

Vaggioli (an Italian monk, and one of the first Benedictine priests to be sent to New Zealand) published this history in 1896. Drawing on first-hand accounts, he describes the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Taranaki wars, the war in Waitkato. He also recorded details of the lives and customs of the Maori people he was evangelising and presents criticisms of both Protestantism and British Colonisation. This is the book's first translation into English.

What would a history of New Zealand look like that rejected Thomas Carlyle’s definition of history as ‘the biography of great men’, and focused instead on the experiences of women? One that shifted the angle of vision and examined the stages of this country’s development from the points of view of wives, daughters, mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and aunts? That considered their lives as distinct from (though often unwillingly influenced by) those of history’s ‘great men’? In her ground-breaking History of New Zealand Women, Barbara Brookes provides just such a history. This is more than an account of women in New Zealand, from those who arrived on the first waka to the Grammy and Man Booker Prize-winning young women of the current decade. It is a comprehensive history of New Zealand seen through a female lens. Brookes argues that while European men erected the political scaffolding to create a small nation, women created the infrastructure necessary for colonial society to succeed. Concepts of home, marriage and family brought by settler women, and integral to the developing state, transformed the lives of Māori women. The small scale of New Zealand society facilitated rapid change so that, by the twenty-first century, women are no longer defined by family contexts. In her long-awaited book, Barbara Brookes traces the factors that drove that change. Her lively narrative draws on a wide variety of sources to map the importance in women’s lives not just of legal and economic changes, but of smaller joys, such as the arrival of a piano from England, or the freedom of riding a bicycle.

Spanning nearly two centuries from first contact through to settlement and apology, ​this major work focuses on the human impact of the war in the Waikato, its origins and aftermath.

When The Oxford History of New Zealand was first published in 1981 it was acclaimed as the standard reference. The turbulent 1980s have changed much about the way we see New Zealand and its history. Some of these new ways of regarding the past have arisen, directly or obliquely, from the activities of the Waitangi tribunal and the wealth of scholarship, Maori and Pakeha, which now surrounds the treaty of Waitangi. Others come from the events of the 1980s, with their profound social, political, and economic consequences. This new edition provides coverage of the last decade, and takes account of recent historical writing. Six new chapters have been added, and many others have been enlarged or updated, making this a substantially revised and expanded second edition. As before, the book draws upon the work of archaeologists, social scientists, economists, historians, and critics, to provide a comprehensive account of New Zealand's past from the first Polynesian settlement to the present day. Like its predecessor, it is essential reading for every student, scholar, and teacher of New Zealand history, and for the general reader, curious to know about New Zealand's past.

An Unsettled History squarely confronts the issues arising from the Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand today. Alan Ward writes lucidly about the Treaty claims process, about settlements made, and those to come. New Zealand’s short history unquestionably reveals a treaty made and then repeatedly breached. This is a compelling case – for fair and reasonable settlement, and for the rigorous continuation of the Treaty claims process through the Waitangi Tribunal. The impact of the past upon the present has rarely been analysed so clearly, or to such immediate purpose.

As a group of islands in the far south-west Pacific Ocean, New Zealand has a history that is steeped in the sea. Its people have encountered the sea in many different ways: along the coast, in port, on ships, beneath the waves, behind a camera, and in the realm of the imagination. While New Zealanders have continually altered their marine environments, the ocean, too, has influenced their lives. A multi-disciplinary work encompassing history, marine science, archaeology and visual culture, New Zealand and the Sea explores New Zealand’s varied relationship with the sea, challenging the conventional view that history unfolds on land. Leading and emerging scholars highlight the dynamic, ocean-centred history of these islands and their inhabitants, offering fascinating new perspectives on New Zealand’s pasts. ‘The ocean has profoundly shaped culture across this narrow archipelago . . . The meeting of land and sea is central in historical accounts of Polynesian discovery and colonisation; European exploratory voyaging; sealing, whaling and the littoral communities that supported these plural occupations; and the mass migrant passage from Britain.’ – Frances Steel

For more than five decades, gangs have played a pivotal role in New Zealand crime life, beginning with the bodgies and widgies of the 1950s. Based on 10 years of gang research, this book chronicles the rise of the Hell's Angels and other bike gangs in the 1960s, the growth of the Mongrel Mob and Black Power in the 1970s, and organized crime during the last decade. With descriptions of such events as the Devil's Henchmen throwing Molotov cocktails at the Epitaph Riders in Christchurch's first gang war and Black Power members surrounding Prime Minister Rob Muldoon at Wellington's Royal Tiger Tavern, it also discusses the significance of colors and class. With accounts from gang members, police, and politicians, this violent and sometimes horrifying book transports its readers to a tough yet revealing part of New Zealand life.