A Concise history Of New Zealand, by Philippa Mein Smith

Probably the best thing about this book is that it is concise. It is by no means a good history book, to be sure, for reasons that are predictable and lamentable, though somewhat specific to a lot of writings by leftist writers relating to New Zealand in general that exhibit particular forms of the problems that leftist writings in general have to say when engaging in historical writing. The other thing about this book that is at least somewhat positive is that the book is at least generally chronological in nature, which is certainly better than the alternative (which would have been an absolute mess if the author had attempted a topical history). At least the framework of information is here that provide the reader with the names of various settler and Maori historical figures (the author regularly, and nauseatingly, refers to whites by the pejorative Maori expression pakeha, thus demonstrating her anti-white bias pretty thoroughly, regardless of her background, and self-hating whites have no place in writing any sort of works of social science), though the execution is clearly lacking.

In terms of its contents, the author has a lot to say in this book’s relatively short space, but most of it isn’t very worthwhile. The author tries to give the Maori a pass for doing the sorts of things that she criticizes New Zealand settlers for doing. For one, she is extremely hostile to white settler colonists while having a massive double standard about the environmental changes that the Maori did to the land (including extinctions and extirpations as well as habitat change) as opposed to how European settlers did. She tries to hold white New Zealanders to a higher standard, praising the Maori for being able to ably defend themselves at times but not praising the military power of settlers in eventually claiming the land for themselves through force of numbers, nor does she condemn the Maori for their general bloodthirsty nature, including cannibalism and enforced slavery, including their treatment of their kin on the Chatham Islands. The author also glorifies in the various progressive causes of environmentalism, blaming the United States for being a big bully when it (properly) kicked New Zealand out of ANZAC in the 1980s over New Zealand’s quixotic opposition to nuclear anything, and also glorying in feminism and the general cultural decadence of contemporary New Zealand. The author would probably praise New Zealand’s Labour government for their covidiocy if she had the chance as well, though this book mercifully ends before 2020.

In terms of its contents, this book is between 250 and 300 pages. It begins with a list of illustrations, acknowledgements, and a short preface. After that the book is divided into ten chapters. The first chapter discusses the watery world that the Maori settler colonists found when they started settling on the island about 700 years ago or so, and what we can know about their history from their fragmentary oral traditions and genealogies (1). This is followed by a discussion of the first contacts with the British from 1769 to 1839, before settlement began on the large scale (2), which includes a discussion (not very thorough) of the deadly Musket Wars. This is then followed by a discussion of how the British claimed the land from 1840 to 1860, after which time the white settlers were ascendant due to demography (3). The author then turns her attention to the politics of remote Australasia and the relationship between Australia and New Zealand (which the author harps on a good deal, repetitively, throughout the book) (4). This is followed by a discussion of how it is that early New Zealand leaders managed globalization up to World War I (5) as well as a discussion of the harrowing experience of NZ in World War I (6) and the aftermath of that period up to the Great Depression. This is followed by a discussion of how New Zealand became what it is during the Depression and the period including and just after World War II (7), as well as the gradual loosening of ties between New Zealand and Great Britain up to the UK’s entry into the European Community in 1973 (8). The last two chapters of the book then largely cover the same ground topically, first looking at experiments in government action (9) and then a look at the revival of the Maori by taking advantage of leftist white guilt (10). The book ends with an epilogue, a glossary of Maori words, a timeline, sources of various quotations, a guide to further reading, and an index.