This is a bibliography of selected works on the history of New Zealand.
General or overview works Bateman New Zealand Encyclopedia, (6th Edition, 2005)
Oliver, W.H. ed. The Oxford History of New Zealand (Oxford University Press, 1981), 16 chapters by experts
Arts and literature Tony Ballantyne, "Placing Literary Culture: Books and Civic Culture in Milton" in Journal of New Zealand Literature (2010) Beavan, Peter, and John Stacpoole. New Zealand Art and Architecture, 1820–1970 (1973) David Eggleton. Towards Aotearoa: A Short History of 20th Century New Zealand Art (2007) Evans, Patrick. The Penguin History of New Zealand Literature (Auckland: Penguin, 1990) Feeney, Warren. "The Establishment of the Canterbury Society of Arts: Forming the Taste, Judgement and Identity of a Province, 1850–1880," New Zealand Journal of History (2010) 44#2 pp 174–189. Explores the influence of British art, the links of the CSA to the Royal Academy in London, the role of Enlightenment ideals of liberalism and individualism, how imperial nationmalism influence art and helped form a New Zealand identity, and establishment of the Canterbury College School of Art. McCormick, E. H. Letters and art in New Zealand (1940) Murray, Stuart. Never a Soul at Home: New Zealand Literary Nationalism and the 1930s (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1998) Pound, Francis. The Invention of New Zealand: Art and National Identity, 1930–1970 (2009) Robinson, Roger, and Nelson Wattie, eds. The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998) Sturm, Terry, ed. The Oxford History of New Zealand Literature in English (Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1991) Williams, Mark, and Michele Leggott, eds. Opening the Book: New Essays on New Zealand Writing (Auckland University Press, 1995)
Economics Banner, Stuart. "Conquest by Contract: Wealth Transfer and Land Market Structure in Colonial New Zealand," Law & Society Review (2000) 34#1 pp. 47–96 in JSTOR Belshaw, H. "Dairying Industry of New Zealand," Economic Geography (1927) 3#3 pp. 281–296 in JSTOR Belshaw, H. "Crisis and Readjustment in New Zealand," Journal of Political Economy (1933) 41#6 pp. 750–775 in JSTOR, covers economic impact of the Great Depression Buchanan, R. Ogilvie. "Sheep Rearing in New Zealand," Economic Geography (1931) 7#4 pp. 365–379 in JSTOR Condliffe, J. B. New Zealand in the Making: A Study of Economic and Social Development (2nd ed. 1959) online, an influential survey Hawke, Gary R. The Making of New Zealand: An Economic History (1985) excerpt and text search, a standard textbook Hawke, Gary R., and Richard W. Baker. Anzus Economics: Economic Trends and Relations among Australia, New Zealand, and the United States (Praeger Publishers, 1992) Hawke, G. R. "The Government and the Depression of the 1930s in New Zealand: An Essay Towards a Revision," Australian Economic History Review (1973) 13#1, pp 72–95 Hunter, Ian and Marie Wilson. "Origins and Opportunity: 150 Years of New Zealand Entrepreneurship," Journal of Management and Organization (2007) 13#4 Le Rossignol, James Edward, and William Downie Stewart. "Railways in New Zealand," Quarterly Journal of Economics (1909) 23#4 pp. 652–696 in JSTOR, free Lloyd-Prichard, Muriel Florence. An economic history of New Zealand to 1939 (1970) McLauchlan, Gordon. The Farming of New Zealand: The People and the Land (2006) Riseborough, Hazel. Shear Hard Work: A History of New Zealand Shearing (2009) Stewart, William Downie. "Land Tenure and Land Monopoly in New Zealand: I," Journal of Political Economy (1909) 17#2 pp. 82–91, 144–52 in JSTOR
Environment and geography Brooking, Tom, and Eric Pawson. Environmental Histories of New Zealand (2002) Brooking, Tom, and Eric Pawson. Seeds of Empire: The Environmental Transformation of New Zealand (2010) Craig, John, et al. "Conservation issues in New Zealand." Annual Review of ecology and Systematics 31.1 (2000): 61-78. online Dunlap, Thomas R. Nature and the English Diaspora: Environment and History in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (1999) Galbreath, Ross. Working for wildlife: a history of the New Zealand Wildlife Service (Wellington: Bridget Williams, 1993). Grey, Alan H. Aotearoa & New Zealand: A Historical Geography (Canterbury University Press 1994) Hamer D.A. "Towns in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand," New Zealand Journal of History (1979) 13#1 pp 5–24. Hamer, David. "The making of urban New Zealand," Journal of Urban History (1995) 22#1 pp 6–39 Hayward, Bruce W. Precious land: protecting New Zealand’s landforms and geological features (Lower Hutt: Geological Society of New Zealand, 1996). McKinnon, Malcolm. Bateman New Zealand historical atlas (1997) Nathan, Simon. "Conservation – a history" The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. (2025) online
Park, Geoff. Ngā Uruora / The Groves of Life: Ecology and History in a New Zealand Landscape (Wellington, Victoria University Press, 1995) Pawson, E. and Brooking, T., eds. Environmental histories of New Zealand, (Oxford University Press, Melbourne) pp. 266–269. Peat, N. Manapouri. Saved, New Zealand's First Great Conservation Success Story (Dunedin, 1994) Saunders, A., and D. A. Norton. "Ecological restoration at mainland islands in New Zealand." Biological Conservation 99.1 (2001): 109-119. Smith, Ian T., Rowan Taylor. The State of New Zealand's Environment, 1997 (1997) online Stewart‐Harawira, Makere W. "Troubled waters: Maori values and ethics for freshwater management and New Zealand's fresh water crisis." Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water 7.5 (2020): e1464. online
Wilson, Roger. From Manapouri to Aramoana: the battle for New Zealand’s environment (Auckland: Earthworks, 1982).
Foreign affairs and wars Belich, James. The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict (1989) Buchanan, Paul G. "Lilliputian in Fluid Times: New Zealand Foreign Policy after the Cold War," Political Science Quarterly (2010) 125#2 pp 255–279 Hensley, Gerald, Beyond the Battlefield: New Zealand and its Allies, 1939–45 (2009) 415pp., diplomatic history McGibbon, Ian, and Paul Goldstone. The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History (2001) McKinnon, Malcolm. Independence and Foreign Policy: New Zealand in the World since 1935 (Auckland University Press 1993) Patman, Robert G., et al. eds. New Zealand and the world : past, present and future (World Scientific, 2018) ISBN 9789813232396 Stack, Wayne, et al. "The New Zealand Expeditionary Force in World War II" (Osprey, 2013), Illustrated.
Government and reform Coleman, Peter J. "The Spirit of New Zealand Liberalism in the Nineteenth Century," Journal of Modern History (1958) 30#3 pp. 227–235 in JSTOR Coleman, Peter J. "New Zealand Liberalism and the Origins of the American Welfare State," Journal of American History (1982) 69#2 pp. 372–391 in JSTOR Coleman, Peter J. Progressivism and the World of Reform: New Zealand and the Origins of the American Welfare State (1987) Davidson, Alexander. Two Models of Welfare: The Origins and Development of the Welfare State in Sweden and New Zealand, 1888–1988 (1989) Fischer, David Hackett. Fairness and Freedom: A History of Two Open Societies: New Zealand and the United States (2012) a search for fairness infuses N.Z. politics, compared to freedom in the US excerpt and text search Grimshaw, Patricia. Women's Suffrage in New Zealand (1988), the standard scholarly study Grimshaw, Patricia. "Women's Suffrage in New Zealand Revisited: Writing from the Margins," Caroline Daley, and Melanie Nolan, eds. Suffrage and Beyond: International Feminist Perspectives (New York U.P., 1994) pp 25–41.
Labour Martin, John E. Holding the Balance. A History of New Zealand's Department of Labour 1891–1995 (1997) Nolan, Melanie. "Classic Third Way or Before its Time? The New Zealand Labour Party in Local and Transnational Context," Labour History Review (2010) 75#1 pp 98–113. Olssen, Erik. The Red Feds: Revolutionary Industrial Unionism and the New Zealand Federation of Labour 1908–1914 (1988)
Māori Davidson, Janet M. The Prehistory of New Zealand (1987) Hill, Richard S. Maori and the State: Crown-Maori Relations in New Zealand/Aotearoa, 1950–2000 (2010) Iho, Taonga Tuku. Encyclopedia of Maori Culture (2002) Pool, D. Ian. "Post-War Trends in Maori Population Growth," Population Studies (1967) 21#2 pp. 87–98 in JSTOR Pool, D. Ian. Maori Population of New Zealand, 1769–1971(1989) Williams, Adrian. Politics of the New Zealand Maori: Protest and co-operation, 1891–1909 (1969)
Political history
Boston, Jonathan. Left Turn: The New Zealand general election of 1999 (Victoria U.P, 2000) Burdon, R. M. The New Dominion. A Social and Political History of New Zealand, 1918–1939 (Wellington: A. H. & A. W. Reed, 1965)
Davis, Richard. Irish Issues in New Zealand Politics, 1868–1922 (Dunedin, 1974) Easton, Brain. Making of Rogernomics (1989) on late 1980s
Levine, Stephen and Nigel S. Roberts, eds. The Baubles of Office: The New Zealand General Election of 2005 (Victoria U.P, 2007) Levine, Stephen and Nigel S. Roberts, eds. Key to Victory: The New Zealand General Election of 2008 (Victoria U.P, 2010) on Rogernomics on 1980s , Labour prime minister 1957–60 Watson, James, and Lachy Paterson, eds. A Great New Zealand Prime Minister? Reappraising William Ferguson Massey (2010), essays by scholars on the Reform Party Prime Minister 1912–25
Social history Barton R. "History of science in Aotearoa New Zealand" The British Journal for the History of Science. 2025;58(1):117-126. doi:10.1017/S0007087424001547 Bryder L. " 'A health resort for consumptives': Tuberculosis and immigration to New Zealand, 1880–1914" Medical History. 1996;40(4):453-471. doi:10.1017/S002572730006169X Fairburn, Miles. The Ideal Society and Its Enemies: The Foundations of Modern New Zealand Society, 1850–1900 (1989) [doi:10.1017/S0020859000009913 online review of this book] Porritt A. " The history of Medicine in New Zealand" Medical History 1967;11(4):334-344. doi:10.1017/S0025727300012485 Rice GW. "How reminders of the 1918–19 pandemic helped Australia and New Zealand respond to COVID-19" Journal of Global History 2020; 15(3):421-433. doi:10.1017/S1740022820000285 Ryan, Greg. "Drink and the Historians: Sober Reflections on Alcohol in New Zealand 1840–1914," New Zealand Journal of History (2010) 44#1 pp 35–53. Examines drinking patterns, why men drank, whether drinking was excessive compared to other countries, how drinking behaviour evolved, and the social role of brewers and the pub owners. Ryan, Greg. The Making of New Zealand Cricket: 1832–1914 (2004) excerpt and text search
Religion and society Else, Anne, ed. Women Together A History of Women's Organizations in New Zealand (Wellington: Daphne Brasell, 1993) Morrison, Hugh. "Globally and Locally Positioned: New Zealand Perspectives on the Current Practice of Religious History," Journal of Religious History (2011) 35#2 pp 181–198; historiography Morrison, Hugh. "The 'joy and heroism of doing good': The New Zealand Missionary" Record and Late-Nineteenth-Century Protestant Children's Missionary Support," Journal of New Zealand Literature: JNZL (2010) No. 28, Part 2: Special Issue: Cultures of Print in Colonial New Zealand pp. 158–182 Stenhouse, John. "Christianity, Modernity and Culture: New Perspectives On New Zealand History" Tennant, Margaret. The Fabric of Welfare: Voluntary Organisations, Government and Welfare in New Zealand, 1840–2005 (2007)
Settlement, migration, demography Adams, Peter. Fatal Necessity: British Intervention in New Zealand, 1830–47 (1978) Akenson, Donald Harman. Half the World from Home: Perspectives on the Irish in New Zealand, 1860–1950 (Wellington, 1990) Arnold, Rollo. The farthest promised land: English villagers, New Zealand immigrants of the 1870s (1981)