Changing Times

Book excerpt: 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.