IMPRESSIVE HISTORY PUBLISHING BY BRIDGET WILLIAMS

I was so impressed with the three titles that turned up a week or two ago from Wellington publisher Bridget Williams Books.  BWB has a well-justified reputation for publishing in this field and these titles illustrate why.
Photo left - Briddget Williams.

STORIES WITHOUT END - Essays 1975-2010
Judith Binney - $49.99

I SHALL NOT DIE
Titokowaru's War 1868-1869
James Bellich - $39.99

THE TREATY OF WAITANGI
(new edition)
Claudia Orange - $49.99

STORIES WITHOUT END
The essays in this collection stand alongside Judith Binney’s remarkable histories of the Urewera and its people. Her writings reach out from these central texts, exploring sidepaths, offering other stories, presenting glimpses tangential to her historical narratives.

The people are those we meet in the books: Rua Kenana and Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki, their colleagues and supporters, their wives and their descendants; the remarkable leaders of the Urewera; the schoolteachers from Maungapohatu; the government men.

Research on the early missionaries, too, has brought insights to their disorienting encounters with the Mäori world. Tracing the tohunga Papahurihia through early documents places this elusive leader more centrally in the historical record.

The stories in this collection are just that: narratives that flow one into another, filling out histories, bringing people out of the shadows, bringing scholarship to life. They are ‘stories without end’, from a writer who is also one of New Zealand’s greatest scholars.
About the author:
Judith Binney, DCNZM, FRSNZ, FNZAH, is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Auckland. Her contribution to the writing of New Zealand (and particularly Mäori) history was acknowledged in the Prime Minister’s Award in 2006.
Her books include: The Legacy of Guilt: A Life of Thomas Kendall (1968, 2005, F. P. Wilson Award), Mihaia: The Prophet Rua Kenana and His Community of Maungapohatu (1979, co-author), Ngä Mörehu: The Survivors (1986, co-author), Redemption Songs: A Life of Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki (1995, Montana New Zealand Book of the Year Award), Encircled Lands: Te Urewera 1820–1921 (2009, NZ Post Book of the Year Award).

I SHALL NOT DIE

Straddling the Maori and European worlds of the 1860s, Titokowaru was one of New Zealand’s greatest leaders. A brilliant strategist, he used every device to save the Taranaki people from European invasion. When peaceful negotiation failed, he embarked on a stunning military campaign against government forces. His victories were many, before the battle he lost. Although he was ‘forgotten by the Pakeha as a child forgets a nightmare’, his vision was one that would endure.

This edition just published. First published in 1989.
Winner of the Adam Award (1989), I Shall Not Die is a compelling history that has contributed to the rethinking of New Zealand’s past.

‘…a riveting piece of historical writing … Its sweep and its humanity combine to make it … a classic of its kind.’ Michael King, Metro, 1989

‘This is a magnificent book, read either as history or as novel, and it proclaims yet another Maori leader, like Te Puea and Rua Kenana, whom recent historians have forced us Pakeha to recognise as great New Zealanders.’ Jock Phillips, Dominion Sunday Times, 1989

About the author:
James Belich, ONZM, FRSNZ, is Research Professor of History at Victoria Univesrity of Wellington. His best-selling publications include Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the Angloworld, 1780–1930 (Oxford University Press, 2009) and Penguin’s two-volume history of New Zealand, Making Peoples (1996) and Paradise Reforged (2001). James Belich has written the histories that place New Zealand on an international stage.

THE TREATY OF WAITANGI

When first published in 1987 this book became an unexpected best-seller. It went on to sell over 40,000 copies and to change the way
NZ 'ers think about the treaty. BWB has now published the book in a new edition that brings the 'story of the Treaty' up to the present.
The first edition won the 1987 Montana Book of the Year Award. The book is widely regarded as the most influential work published on the subject and it should be read by every New Zealander.

‘This book is commended to all who love their country.’
Ranginui Walker, NZ Listener, 1988

About the author:
Dr Claudia Orange, DCNZM, OBE, grew up in a family where Māori affairs were a daily concern. She has been closely involved in discussions over the Treaty in relation to court hearings and the Waitangi Tribunal.
After many years as the General Editor of the acclaimed Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Dr Orange is currently Collections and Research Group Director at Te Papa, where she leads the museum’s research, curatorial and collection management teams.