The definitive life story of New Zealand Prime Minister &“Kiwi&” Keith Holyoake is revealed in this deftly composed exploration of how one man was able to weather complex changes in society to stay in power for more than 11 years. Through his leadership in the 1960s to his position as Governor General in the late 1970s, Holyoake was often derided as pompous and unprincipled, but this biography demonstrates the astute understanding of people and political issues that allowed him to defuse division and preserve order while encouraging gradual and incremental progress. Holyoake's performance as Minister of Foreign Affairs is also examined, including his opposition to nuclear testing and his reluctant commitment to assisting the United States in Vietnam.

This the only authorized biography of New Zealand's prime minister, Robert Muldoon—one of the dominant political figures of the last half-century in that country. Based on many hours of conversation with Muldoon himself as well as colleagues, friends, and family, and wide access to the prime minister's official and private papers and diaries, this book has been awarded the Ian Wards Prize for published historical writing. Muldoon is shown as a champion of the ordinary people whose vision over time became anachronistic and inflexible. The book is also a fascinating picture of New Zealand's changing political landscape from the 1940s to the 1980s.

There is a tradition of “participant history” among historians of the Pacific Islands, unafraid to show their hands on issues of public importance and risking controversy to make their voices heard. This book explores the theme of the participant historian by delving into the lives of J.C. Beaglehole, J.W. Davidson, Richard Gilson, Harry Maude and Brij V. Lal. They lived at the interface of scholarship and practical engagement in such capacities as constitutional advisers, defenders of civil liberties, or upholders of the principles of academic freedom. As well as writing history, they “made” history, and their excursions beyond the ivory tower informed their scholarship. Doug Munro’s sympathetic engagement with these five historians is likewise informed by his own long-term involvement with the sub-discipline of Pacific History.

A major biography of arguably New Zealand's greatest modern political leader As Norman Kirk’s body lay in state near the steps of Parliament on the day after his death on 31 August 1974, a kaumatua wailed ‘the mighty totara has fallen’. The lament reflected what many New Zealanders felt about this big, commanding and loved leader, dead at just 51. More than 30,000 people filed past Kirk's casket over two days, and again in Christchurch, in a commemoration that matched only Michael Joseph Savage's for emotional power. Both men died in office, both men were humanitarians. Kirk also worked to move the Labour Party away from its cloth-cap heritage to embrace a much broader electoral compass, for it to become, in his words, ‘the natural party of New Zealand’. Prime Minister of New Zealand between November 1972 and August 1974, Kirk's childhood was blighted with poverty, yet he thrived. He moved into a succession of manual trades, before booming into local body politics. His political rise was rapid, from mayor of Kaiapoi at the age of 30 to leader of the Labour Party within a few years. This book examines Kirk’s political leadership; his successes, especially his stunning performances on the international stage, but also his later difficulties when the country’s economy was rocked by international oil shocks. He deferred the 1973 Springbok tour and sent warships into the French nuclear testing zone near Mururoa Atoll, his government set up ohu and the established the DPB. He was New Zealand’s first truly regionalist Prime Minister, drawing New Zealand closer to Asia and the Pacific, as the ties to ‘mother Britain’ slowly loosened. This landmark book takes the full measure of the remarkable New Zealander who was our last working-class Prime Minister.

From the &“golden weather&” of postwar economic growth, through the globalization, economic challenges, and protest of the 1960s and 1970s, to the free market revolution and new immigrants of the 1980s and 1990s and beyond, this account, the most complete and comprehensive history of New Zealand since 1945, illustrates the chronological and social history of the country with the engaging stories of real individuals and their experiences. Leading historians Jennifer Carlyon and Diana Morrow discuss in great depth New Zealand's move toward nuclear-free status, its embrace of a small-state, free-market ideology, and the seeming rejection of its citizens of a society known for the &“worship of averages.&” Stories of pirate radio in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf, the first DC8 jets landing at Mangere airport, feminists liberating pubs, public protests over the closing of post offices, and indigenous language nests vividly demonstrate how a postwar society famous around the world for its dull conformity became one of the most ethnically, economically, and socially diverse countries on earth.

Slowing down global warming is one of the most critical problems facing the world’s policymakers today. One favored solution is to regulate carbon consumption through taxation, including the taxation of gasoline. Yet gasoline tax levels are much lower in the United States than elsewhere. Why is this so, and what does it tell us about the prospects for taxing carbon here? A Comparative History of Motor Fuels Taxation, 1909–2009: Why Gasoline Is Cheap and Petrol Is Dear examines these questions by tracing the evolution of gasoline tax policies in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand since the early twentieth century. In the process, it highlights the crucial role played by fiscal crises.

This book explores how New Zealand, a small country almost as far from Western Europe as it is possible to be, assumed political importance in Britain’s accession to the European Community vastly out of proportion to its size, proximity and strategic position. At several points in accession negotiations, the issue of New Zealand’s continued trade with Britain threatened to derail UK Government attempts to join the Community. This issue also interacted with the broader context of the Cold War, economic shocks and decolonisation, materially affecting the terms of entry into the European Community, and altering Britain’s relations with its European partners and the British public’s perceptions of British membership. After entry, New Zealand continued to resurface as a continued source of tension between Britain and an integrating Europe. The role that New Zealand played sheds light on Britain’s attempts to retain global influence after the demise of its formal empire. Contributing to a growing body of research which challenges the traditional historical narratives of British ‘decline’ and colonial ‘independence’ in the second half of the twentieth century, this book fills an important gap in the historiography of Britain following the 1973 enlargement of the European Communities.