In recent years, the New Zealand Wars literature has been expanding at an amazing rate, with some very good books being published by noted historians. This section will highlight some of these texts published over the last decade or so. Plse place your cursor on each...
Wars Library
This section provides details of some of the considerable New Zealand Wars literature now available. Also included are other published sources on interesting related topics, like the Waitangi Tribunal and the Māori Trust Boards [new book coming]. We also assess some of the recent movies/tv shows featuring the wars.
1 NZ WARS LIBRARY
There is actually quite a reasonable literature now available dealing with the New Zealand Wars. The books and other sources listed below are perhaps the best of these resources available. Books Edmund Bohan, Climates of War, New Zealand in Conflict 1859-69, Hazard...
2 PUBLISHED BEFORE 1900
A significant number of books, articles, monographs and other texts dealing with the Land Wars appeared before 1900. Many of these texts were written by participants in the events described, or by close observers. In that respect, they are important for their...
3 BOOKS MAINLY ON THE 19th CENTURY
Octavius Hadfield, The Second Year of One of England's Little Wars, London, 1861 (the North Taranaki War 1860-61). F.E. Maning, Old New Zealand. A Tale of the Good Old Times by a Pakeha Maori, Auckland, 1863. John Eldon Gorst, The Maori King, new edition edited by...
4 SOURCES – BEFORE THE WARS
Pre Contact Māori Life and Māori Warfare Atholl Anderson, When All The Moa Ovens Grew Cold, 1983. Janet Davidson, The Prehistory of New Zealand, 1984. Aileen Fox, Prehistoric Maori Fortifications in the North Island of New Zealand, 1976. A.P. Vayda, Maori Warfare,...
5 ADDITIONAL LIBRARY OF INTEREST – THE WAITANGI TRIBUNAL
The books listed below are all very good and add interesting perspectives when assessing the Waitangi Tribunal process today. Alan Ward, An Unsettled History. Treaty Claims in New Zealand Today, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 1999. Giselle Byrnes, The...
6 ADDITIONAL LIBRARY OF INTEREST – THE MĀORI TRUST BOARDS
A History of the Māori Trust Boards This book was commissioned by Te Puni Kokiri and Minister Naiah Mahuta in 2020. The book is currently going thrū production and will be launched sometime in 2024-2025. The Māori Trust Boards are interesting because the...
7 NEWSEST BOOKS ON OTHER RELATED TOPICS NOW AVAILABLE
Over recent years, many really good books have been published which touch on the New Zealand Wars, or deal with related but much broader aspects of New Zealand history, or cover very interesting aspects of Māori history. Some of these books are shown here - place your...
8 NZ WARS CONFERENCE, MASSEY UNIVERSITY, 2011
The first ever New Zealand Wars conference was held in Wellington, on the Massey University Campus, between 11 - 13 February 2011. The conference well organised by Paul Diamond, John Crawford and a team of experts; and was attended by about 400 people. An...
9 ‘REEL HISTORY’ OR ‘REAL HISTORY – THE NZ WARS ON SCREEN
One interesting source for the New Zealand Wars, sometimes overlooked, is movies and documentaries. Over the years, there have been some very good films about aspects of the wars, whether they be movies, TV series or documentaries. This section highlights a range of...