Backbencher

A History of New Zealand by Keith Sinclair was written in order to tell others the history of New Zealand. Sinclair starts the book with a prologue telling the reader about what the Maoris believe as the creation of the world. The book then went through the history of New Zealand from 1642 through 2000 including the political parties in power, relations with other countries, how the Maoris were treated, and the reforms that the country went through. This book shows the path that New Zealand followed to go from the explorers and European settlements to colonies to, ultimately, a dominion.

I thought this book was very interesting. I like how Sinclair started with the Maoris and gave them a big part in the book. He didn't just give him two pages like Clark in his Short History of Australia. Sinclair wrote about what the Maoris thought about the early European explorers and the colonists, along with what they believed and how they treated the Europeans. The book also showed how the Europeans treated the Maoris and how they bought the Maori lands.

I also liked how Sinclair wrote about some of the other things that, as a group, we decided were important in the history of a country. These included the discovery of the land, some imports and exports, leaders of the government and what forms of government were in power at certain times, schools, women, and wars/battles with other countries and/or other groups of people. He discussed how women got the right to vote in the late 1800s which was almost the earliest in the world. They were involved in politics but not in a huge way until later. Sinclair wrote about religion but did not dwell on it for very long. He wrote more about the religious views of the Maori then he did any other religion.

Sinclair wrote about the poets and the poetry that came from New Zealand and how the poetry changed depending on when it was written. New Zealand went through some depressions and inflationary periods which affected the lives of the people living in New Zealand and in other countries. These periods of depression influenced the poets and other artists during that time.

I still don't totally understand all of the political parts of the books that we have read this semester. I know that there is the Labour Party and the Liberal Party but I don't know what the main difference is between them. It was of particular interest to me that New Zealand blamed the Americans for the Vietnam War and had no respect for them during the 1980s. I did not know that New Zealand was a part of the Vietnam War or had any ties to it. It was interesting to find this information out.