The New Oxford History of New Zealand 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 (and remain) more important than ideas of evolving nationhood.

All the chapters in this book feature new and previously unpublished research, informed by international as well as interdisciplinary scholarship and in keeping with the aim of the book to set the agenda for future historical research imperatives. Chapters showcase research that explores trans-national, comparative and regional contexts.

• Responds to the need for a general re-interpretation of the 'big picture' of New Zealand history.
• Offers an up-to-date snapshot of the state of historical scholarship in early twenty-first century New Zealand
• Draws on a number of discrete topics as case studies and highlights particular incidents and stories to illustrate points of interest
• The chronological structure within each chapter complements the overall themcatic approach of the volume to enhance the book's utility as a teaching resource
• Readers are exposed to a number of different voices, opinions and approaches.

 Preface

1. Introduction – Reframing New Zealand History, Giselle Byrnes

Part One: People, land and sea

2. Origins, settlement and society of pre-European South Polynesia, Atholl Anderson
3. Humans and the environment in New Zealand, about 1800 to 2000, Paul Star

Part Two: Biculturalism(s)?

4. History and Memory – the wood of the whau tree, 1766–2005, Judith Binney
5. The State, Politics and Power, 1769-1893, Tony Ballantyne
6. Maori Economies and Colonial Capitalism, Paul Monin

Part Three: ‘Settlement and Unsettlement’

7. New Zealand’s Pacific, Damon Salesa
8. Migration and Ethnic Identities in the Nineteenth Century, Angela McCarthy
9. The New Zealand Economy 1792-1914, Jim McAloon
10. Colonisation, empire and gender, Katie Pickles

Part Four: ‘Nation(s)-making’?

11. New Zealand’s Wars, Roberto Rabel                
12. Ways of Belonging – Sporting Spaces in New Zealand History, Charlotte Macdonald
13. The Tasman World, Philippa Mein-Smith

Part Five: ‘A social laboratory’?

14. Religion and Society, John Stenhouse             
15. Constantly on the move, but going nowhere? Work, community and social mobility, Melanie Nolan
16. The changing meanings and practices of welfare, 1840s – 1990s, Bronwyn Labrum
17. Modernity, Consumption, and Leisure, Caroline Daley
18. Family, Community and Gender, Angela Wanhalla
19. Sexuality, morality and society, Chris Brickell
20. Health and illness, 1840s-1990s, Catharine Coleborne

Part Six: ‘State experiments’?

21. Maori and State Policy, Richard S Hill
22. The New Zealand Economy, 1900-2000, Geoff Bertram
23. New Zealand and the world: imperial, international and global relations, David Capie

Editor: Giselle Byrnes – Chairperson and Professor of History, Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Waikato.