Description
Book SynopsisThe Making of New Zealanders is an account of how transplanted Britons and others turned themselves into New Zealanders, a distinct group of people with their own songs and sports, symbols and opinions, political traditions and sense of self. Looking at the onset of home-grown shipping, railway and telegraph networks, at Maori and the kiwi, at rugby teams and votes for women, Ron Palenski identifies the emergence of a national identity in 'God's Own'. From the mid-nineteenth century immigrants to New Zealand - men and women - came to see themselves as New Zealanders, and the ever-increasing number of native-born were New Zealanders. Key events at the dawn of the twentieth century often taken to signify the emergence of a New Zealand sense of self - the rejection of federation with Australia, involvement in the South African War and 1905 All Black tour - were, Palenski argues, an outward affirmation of a New Zealand identity that had already taken shape. The Making of New Zealanders is a bold reconception of when and why the new inhabitants of this country first saw themselves as a distinct people.
Table of ContentsPreface -- Orthographical note -- Introduction -- Chapter One: From Many to One: Linking the 'Fishing Villages' -- Chapter Two: The Press Stirred into New Life -- Chapter Three: The Symbols of 'Godzone' -- Chapter Four: Was New Zealand Exceptional? -- Chapter Five: 'New Zealand for the New Zealanders' -- Chapter Six: For God, for Queen and for (Which?) Country -- Chapter Seven: Forging a National Identity Through Sport Chapter Eight: In Thrall to the Oval Ball -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.
