The New Oxford History of New Zealand

The New Oxford History of New Zealand is a new, multi-authored revisionist history of Aotearoa New Zealand. The book tests the idea that New Zealand history can be explained as a quest for 'national identity' and considers whether narratives that rely on the 'colony-to-nation' storyline are still relevant in the early twenty-first century. The book proposes instead that history and identity have been shaped by culture, community, class, region and gender, and that these have been more important than ideas of evolving nationhood. Above all, this new book responds to the need for a general re-interpretation of the 'big picture' of New Zealand history.