A concise history of New Zealand

New Zealand was the last major landmass, other than Antarctica, to be settled by humans.

In this new account of New Zealand's history, Philippa Mein Smith considers this rugged and dynamic land from its break from Gondwana 80 million years ago to the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Mein Smith highlights the effects of the country's smallness and isolation, from late settlement by Polynesian voyagers, very late colonisation and settlement by Europeans, and the interactions that made these people Maori and Pakeha, to struggles over land, and efforts through time to manage global forces.

This is a history that places New Zealand in its global and regional context, linked to Britain, immersed in the Pacific, and part of Australasia.

Distinctively, this book unravels the ways in which key moments have contributed to the founding of the country's national myths.