Gordon McLauchlan: A Short History Of New Zealand

Reviewed by KERRY HOWE

Gordon McLauchlan has long been one of New Zealand's more insightful social commentators. In addition to his prolific journalism, he has written many valuable books on New Zealand history and society, ranging from The Passionless People (I think his best work) to Bateman's The New Zealand Encyclopedia. He has now written a short history of New Zealand.

Short histories are notoriously difficult to write. Because they are short they necessarily contain limited historical detail. But their potential contribution is that they can highlight key themes, and offer arguments and interpretations. It is the approach and purpose that is the defining characteristic of a good short history, not its narrative information.

Writing a short history about a modern nation-state generally has the added requirement that it say something thoughtful and/or revealing about how the present has come about. So writing a successful short history requires an acute awareness of purpose and of contribution — it should say something that longer histories do not.

Does McLauchlan's Short History do this? Not really. His information is largely unoriginal, as is his general conclusion that New Zealanders are "tolerant, liberated, hard-working", and now inhabit a world of "dizzying change" which has left them "insecure and uneasy".

While entertainingly written, this is not a work of significant original historical scholarship. There are no new insights, no novel or stimulating perspectives or arguments.

The author would presumably argue that this is not his purpose. And fair enough. In his predictive defence, he says that it is a "personal narrative". It is intended to "introduce our country's story to general readers and students".

In this sense, at least, the book makes a genuinely useful contribution. There is currently no equivalent history of New Zealand at around 200 pages. It will fill a market niche, and will doubtless sell very well.

The narrative begins with New Zealand's geological recency, the initial human migrations through the Pacific Islands, and the Polynesian discovery and settlement of New Zealand. Then come Cook and traders, there's the Treaty, colonial settlement and the New Zealand Wars.

The cultural interaction material, including extremely brief comment on modern Treaty issues, is confined to the pre-1900 section. The 20th century, which gets much less space than the 19th, largely focuses on a narrative of major political events (governments, wars, depressions) and the closer it gets to the present, the more frothy and truncated it becomes. For example, the period since 1990 is covered in less than two pages of text.

McLauchlan relies heavily on existing historical scholarship, though his particular version is largely purged of any arguments that drive much of it — such as analyses of patterns of colonial and postcolonial power relationships, of gender roles, of human interaction with the environment, of interactions of global and local economics, of demographic and ethnic composition, of construction and reconstruction of identities.

McLauchlan might fleetingly mention some of these matters in passing, but they do not inform his account.

I imagine he would claim that he's simply telling what happened. Which is again fair enough, but no history or story is ever neutral.

What he offers is a fairly gentle survey of selected aspects of New Zealand's past. His narrative overall lacks that incisive analytical comment, that bite, that he is so capable of. At times there's a nostalgic, even avuncular tone, occasionally interspersed with personal anecdote, particularly in the 20th century section. Put simply, the country has seen better times. I suspect it's an account of our past that may well appeal more to ageing Pakeha male baby-boomers.

Penguin has produced an attractive book, with a range of photographs, mainly of people, with extended captions. There's also a time-line, which further reinforces the notion that this is history as a sequence of events, rather than argument and perspective. But for a book which is intended to "stimulate" readers to move on to "longer and more detailed books" on New Zealand history,
the lack of even the most basic bibliography or suggestions for further reading is a shortcoming.

* Penguin, $29.95

* Kerry Howe is professor of history at Massey University, Albany. His most recent book is The Quest for Origins.