The Making of New Zealanders

(Paperback)

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The Making of New Zealanders traces the story of how transplanted Britons and others turned themselves into New Zealanders: a distinct group of people with their own songs and sports, symbols and opinions, political traditions and sense of self. Looking at the arrival of steamships and the telegraph, at 'God's Own' and the kiwi, rugby and votes for women, Ron Palenski identifies the nineteenth century origins of the sense of New Zealandness. He convincingly argues that events which have earlier held to be breakthroughs in the development of a New Zealand national identity - such as the federation of Australia in 1901, the Boer War of 1899-1902 and the Gallipoli campaign of 1915 - were in fact outward affirmations of a New Zealand identity that had already taken shape much earlier. A well-known, awardwinning writer of general histories and sports books and an accomplished journalist, Ron Palenski has produced out of his PhD research a readable, richly illustrated history that shakes up what we think we know about how - and when - New Zealanders came to be.

Author Bio

Ron Palenski ONZM is the founder and CE of the New Zealand Hall of Fame in Dunedin and the author of numerous books for a general audience, most notably All Blacks: The Authorised Portrait (2007), the Encyclopedia of New Zealand Rugby (1999) and How We Saw the War: 1939-45: Through New Zealand Eyes (2009). The Making of New Zealanders is based on Palenski's acclaimed PhD thesis from the University of Otago.