Making a New Land

Book excerpt: Making a New Land presents an interdisciplinary perspective on one of the most rapid and extensive transformations in human history: that which followed Maori and then European colonization of New Zealand's temperate islands. This is a new edition of Environmental Histories of New Zealand, first published in 2002, brimming with new content and fresh insights into the causes and nature of this transformation, and the new landscapes and places that it produced. Unusually among environmental histories, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of change, focusing on international as well as local contexts. Its 19 chapters are organized in five broadly chronological parts: Encounters, Colonising, Wild Places, Modernising, and Contemporary Perspectives. These are framed by an editorial introduction and a reflective epilogue. The book is well illustrated with photographs, maps, cartoons and other graphics.