The Shaping of History Essays from the New Zealand Journal of History

Examining various political and cultural histories from New Zealand, this collection of essays from leading historians explores the country's complex, multivoiced past. Writers such as Tipene O'Regan and Alan Ward analyze New Zealand's Treaty of Waitangi, which intended to establish a peaceful relationship between European settlers and the Maori indigenous population. Judith Binney and Claudia Orange discuss Maori language traditions and histories. Raewyn Dalziel, Barbara Brookes, and Dean Wilson trace the women's movement of the 1970s in New Zealand. R. C. J. Stone, Caroline Daley, and Miles Fairburn debate issues of 19th-century New Zealand society. Essays from Erik Olssen and Keith Sinclair question the validity of historical "facts."