The Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict: The Maori, the British, and the New Zealand Wars (Volume 107) (McGill-Queen's Studies in Ethnic History) - Softcover

Belich, James

4.36

11 ratings by Goodreads

9780773507395: The Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict: The Maori, the British, and the New Zealand Wars (Volume 107) (McGill-Queen's Studies in Ethnic History)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0773507396 ISBN 13: 9780773507395

Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1989

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In The Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict James Belich shows that the legend of New Zealand race relations is not only flawed, it is inaccurate. He notes that typical stories "emphasize inevitability, minimize the importance of conflict and the Maori success in it, and present a pattern of nineteenth century race relations which is like a simple slope -- short, straight, and for the Maori downwards." Belich goes on to present a strong argument that this perspective is wrong and to show how Victorian attitudes toward race have distorted the way military and social historians have viewed the Maori-British wars. Winner of the prestigious Trevor Reese Memorial Prize, The Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict is a meticulous reassessment of one of the great racial wars of the nineteenth century, the conflict between the Maori and the British in New Zealand. Belich's insights are extremely relevant to work in North American history and to the growing body of literature surrounding the struggles of indigenous people as they have fought against European domination.

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Review:

"Fruit of a stunning quantity of research ... This book is one that can rightly be called seminal. It will be impossible for anyone to write about the New Zealand Wars again without reference to its arguments; and I doubt if its conclusions will be seriously challenged. It is a powerfully persuasive book." Auckland Metro "James Belich's book is a tour de force. In a brilliant new analysis, he demolishes the received version of the course and outcome of the New Zealand Wars of the colonial period, explains how we came by that version and why it is all wrong, and substitutes his own interpretation...It is a vigorous and splendidly stylish contribution to our own historiography." New Zealand Listener

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