James Belich

This is the sort of sprawling history of everything that I tend not to often read these days, but what Belich is offering is a really a theory of how we've had several centuries of predominance by English-speaking superpowers. Essentially, Great Britain and the United States were the economic winners of the Napoleonic wars and were able to take advantage of technology and finance to send wave after wave of population surges to assorted frontiers throughout the 19th century. From there, show more Belich detects an almost generational pattern of growth-forward settlement and city building, almost inevitably followed by a bust, to be followed by a period of what Belich calls "recolonization," as the new frontiers begin to settle down into resource generators for their respective metropolitan capitals. Belich does have many examples of exceptions to this pattern, but he's plowed through enough monographic material to make you believe that he's onto something. That the man writes with some genuine wit does help to lighten the load of what could otherwise be an insufferably pedantic exercise!

As for my main caveat I'd note that Belich tends to deal more with what the prospective settlers thought they were gaining and less with what they were running from. One of the salutatory points made by Joshua Freeman in his study of the giant factory entitled "Behemoth" was how authoritarian Britain was in the immediate decades after the end of the Napoleonic Wars; it's certainly food for thought. Seeing as Belich displays, at points, some personal irony about being a person of non-English descent writing about the English speaking peoples the role and motivation of the German-speaking people participating in the movable feast of Anglophone colonization is another point that someone should explicate upon. show less

This is quite a refreshing analysis of history in an era otherwise stagnated by post-structuralist infestation in all fields of academia.

I came across this book in 2013 while researching for a school project on the Maori Land Wars. Belich's reputation as an impartial historian preceded him in my preliminary resources list and I picked up a dog-eared copy from my school library. Irrespective of the much cracked spine (it only added to the vintage sentiment of the book), I was instantly drawn show more into a world never seen before.

Incorporating contemporary sources from both the British military, the white settler and Maori perspectives Belich provides a surgical judgement on the New Zealand Wars also misnomered as the Maori Land Wars. He provides a much more realistic picture of the entire calamity as opposed to historians who primarily rely on the works of contemporary chroniclers who were far removed in London at the time and failed to distinguish between settler braggadocio and reality.

Overall, this is an engrossing read but-as with much of history-only for the interested ones and not readers looking for a lark in the park sort of memoir. show less

The concluding volume of distinguished New Zealand historian James Belich's general history of New Zealand is an engaging, tightly bound look at the 20th century. It certainly lives up to the expectations generated by the first academic history of the country by a single author since Keith Sinclair's work of the 1960s.
Belich writes with an engaging style, mixing humour and deft usage of example with the broad brushstroke of well formed arguments. Dividing the period into three large bites show more (1880s-1920s, 1920s to 1960s and 1960s to today), the first part of each 'bite' provides a chronological mix of primarily political and economic analysis. This useful framework informs the less-chronologically restricted second part of the section, dealing with social history. The format works very well, allowing a logical structure where the histories of government, popular culture, racial issues, economics and social structure sit neatly together without jumping back and forth as in a conventional narrative.
Of particular delight for me are the 'revisionist' re-examinations of a number of events, emphasising and casting them in a new light. Examples include the 1913 labour crisis and a very good look at the 'Protein' industry which places it in its political, economic and social context superbly.
The two core arguments are those of Recolonialism and The Great Tightening, tying our history to our relationship with Britain, and the populist quest for conformity and harmony. The points are both deftly argued, with every theme being tied to them, usually quite convincingly. As with any argument seeking to provide coherence, however, at times there is a danger that other causes and effects can be understated and ignored. One instance of this was in dealing with the dour 'safeness' of the early postwar era. Belich quotes Jame Mander; [New Zealand was] "afflicted with the 'awful disease' of puritanism and conformism - 'barren wastes of Victorian philistinism', 'brain-numbing, stimulus-stifling, soul-searing silence'". Although this is convincingly linked with the concept of 'tightening', another important factor, that of the search for security and safety in the aftermath of World War II is scarcely touched upon.
Belich's broadsweeping approach also uncovers the many holes in New Zealand historiography, however his guesswork in these areas, for instance in sport, is usually convincing and far more informative and thought provoking than ignoring them completely!
Anyone with a passion for history, or studying New Zealand history in particular will be very well served and stimulated by "Paradise Reforged"'s superb arguments and bibliography to explore our history in further depth. It is a sad indictment on New Zealand television that he was never asked to employ the talents he displayed in The New Zealand Wars series to present a general history of New Zealand on television, ala Simon Schama. show less

An all encompassing human history of the Black Plague of the mid 14th century, the changes it wrought in the relationships between the nobility and the proletariat, the technological changes that were driven by necessity, the origins of the world trade. All brought up to date by new findings and reinterpretations of previous assumptions. Europe to start with, but a very comprehensive look at the 14th into the 19th centuries in the Middle East, South Asia, China, Russia, Africa and the show more Americas. Fabulous, very readable. Highly recommended if you are drawn to this type of history. show less