Michael King (1)Recensioni

We really enjoyed this history of NZ and got a better understanding of the more recent changes and milestones of this beautiful country and of the relationship between Maori tribes and pakeha which is more nuanced and experienced more troubling periods than I was aware.

New Zealand,Maori,Polynesians,World History,Environment,Natural History

This book gives a nice and brief overview of the history of New Zealand. Especially the early chapters on New Zealand's pre-history and Maori settlement are quite enlightening. However, most of the topics are treated somewhat superficially and if you are interested in a more in-depth history of New Zealand's places and people, you will have to find further material. This book is merely an excellent introduction for someone who has never given thought to Kiwi history. It is certainly helpful in advance of a visit to Aotearoa.

With such a small area and short timespan to cover, it felt possible to hold the entire story in my head at one time. This meant that I felt viscerally the surprise of the Moriori after centuries without contact and the tragedy of their fate. It also engendered a huge admiration of the adaptability of the Moriori to their environment and of their commitment to the pacifist principle of Nunuku's Law in the face of the severest possible test.

The photos and letters were well-chosen to show the personalities of the Moriori, Maori, and Europeans alike, and they never lapsed into illustration for illustration's sake.

Also, the anecdote about the hapless French sailors who tried to lock the Maori travelling with them below the deck was genuinely hilarious.

Writer, historian and biographer Michael King charts the development of his professional life in this very readable book that covers such major events in New Zealand history as the Springbok Tour of 1981 and the Rainbow Warrior Bombing in 1985.

This is a good narrative history of New Zealand. Its well written and manages to cover the material in a pretty balanced way. I enjoyed the way King explained the geological background and timescales. He also manages not to stay too aloof and general - I enjoyed the material on Thomas Russell for example and his cavalier capitalism at a time when the nation was beginning to really be built.
I'm sure there are parts that will annoy people of most political persuasions. Any material that deals with the relationship between the government and Maori in the nineteenth century is bound to annoy right wingers, and likewise the politically correct academia and Maori activists of the present might have seen red over his assessment of how in the span of time and our relationship with this place all New Zealand have become tangata whenua.
King avoids the awful tendency of many historians to patronise or judge the past (the 'we're so enlightened now' attitude). He is remarkably balanced - not too much of a cheerleader for the Savage government like some histories which seem to think Labour ended the Depression, for example.
Overall a good read for anyone with some interest in New Zealand's history and wanting a good overarching framework for understanding where we have come from.

An important book in the history of New Zealand realising it's a bicultural nation, and written at a turning point: after the Springbok Tour, before the Sesqui celebrations and mainstream Treaty awareness. Also fascinating for me knowing King's children, and heartbreaking to think of his tragic early death.

On the 20th September, 2012 I visited the Eastern Southland Gallery in Gore and had a taste of what the Money Collection includes. At the time I know I was surprised and amazed to find huge wooden sculptures from Mali located in a gallery in Gore, New Zealand, as well as collections of artworks by Rita Angus and Theo Schoon.

This short but valuable introduction to the John Money Collection helps to deepen an appreciation of a visit to the Gallery and the Collection. It includes a brief outline of how New Zealander John Money's Collection ended up in Southland from 2104 East Madison, Baltimore in the United States.

The late Michael King gives a biographical sketch in his introductory essay entitled: 'John Money: Scientist, Eccentric, Patron of the Arts.' In particular I found his overview of Money's friends and like-minded people very interesting: Diny and Paul Schramm, Rodney Kennedy, Charles Brasch, Freddie Page, Douglas Lilburn, Denis Glover, Theo Schoon among others.

Michael King asserts that Karl Popper (Canterbury University College) and visiting academic to Otago University where Money was lecturing, wrote 'possibly the most influential book ever written in New Zealand.' Popper's colleague,at Canterbury University College, Ivan Sutherland, would surely have an opinion on that!

The illustrations and production are exemplary; the often-noted omission of an index would help to make this book and its contents more accessible, but it does have Notes and a Bibliography.

See also my Clippings Scrapbook 2.½

Faintly stunned when I got to the end of this. My first thought was that everyone in NZ should read this approachable, comprehensive bicultural account of our country's history. Unlike Belich's two volumes, it's written for the general reader, not the historian. It's larded with plenty of quotation and vignette to avoid dryness, and I found myself underlining or annotating almost every page. An overwhelming desire to read it again immediately, or at least every year. What a tragedy for King to die not long after revising this; he had many other great books in him.

awesome - a lengthy read but well worth it to dispel inaccurate facts about Janet Frame

I bought this as it is widely considered `the' history of my new home - it's in all the shops and is widely known. King's style makes this book an easy read, but not altogether a pleasant one. The overt PC agenda which seeks to over-emphasise the merits of indigenous culture at every turn led me to be particularly pleased when I finished it. I've no axe to grind about this but the overall result is to paint a Maori-focussed picture of modern NZ that bears little similarity to the country that I recognise from nearly two years of living here. The author also makes all the `right' statements about other aspects of the social history of the country.

The content is considerably imbalanced towards literary, artistic and social history at the expense of other areas, e.g. economic and industrial history or foreign relations - almost nothing about agriculture! This is made all the worse by the fact that the title runs to over 500 pages.

In summary, if you are particularly interested in the arts, social `science', and Maori issues then you will love this - it is well written. If not, or you want to get what feels like a balanced account of New Zealand's history then look elsewhere.½

Tried to read it once, however found it very dense. I will try it again soon.

One of the tragedies of 2004 was the loss of Michael King. No question, he had written so many books about New Zealanders who made us all proud to be New Zealanders, that there seemed to be a collective cheer when he wrote this updated history of our country. The amazing thing is that, while all the major events of the country are covered, it’s a really easy book to read. King said that he didn’t want it to be an academic tome, but to be something that all New Zealanders could read. At a time when there seemed to be a touch of dissension in the nation, his calming tone made us all sit up a bit straighter and be thankful for what we have here.