Matthew Wright

What does a nation of immigrants think and feel about immigration? Recent accounts of immigration policy routinely cast Americans as divided into two warring camps – one fuelled by threat to livelihoods and way of life, the other by a fervent cosmopolitanism that sees the nation-state as passé. This counter-intuitive book shows that these accounts miss the mark. First, almost...

What does a nation of immigrants think and feel about immigration? Recent accounts of immigration policy routinely cast Americans as divided into two warring camps – one fueled by threat to livelihoods and way of life, the other by a fervent cosmopolitanism that sees the nation-state as passé. This counter-intuitive book shows that these accounts miss the mark. First, almost...

During the first decades of the nineteenth century, New Zealand was swept by inter-tribal warfare of unprecedented scale, in struggles that became known as the Musket Wars. They lasted a generation and profoundly shaped modern New Zealand, with influence extending to the locations of main centres—Auckland, Wellington, New Plymouth, Nelson, and Napier among others. Multiple race-relations issues today can be...

In this third, revised and expanded edition of Illustrated History, noted historian Matthew Wright brings New Zealand's turbulent and exciting past to life. He traces our journey from the arrival of Polynesians to discovery by Europe, exploring New Zealand's dramatic colonial past, the impacts of the world wars, the era of the pavlova paradise, the Rogernomics revolution, and the dramatic...

Acclaimed historian Matthew Wright explores the evolution of New Zealand's most historically significant document, the Treaty of Waitangi, from its origins to its place in the present day. From the early cultural collisions between Maori and Pakeha that led to this landmark agreement, to the many reinterpretations that have followed, Waitangi: A Living Treaty brings the story and concepts of...

Albert Einstein called Ernest Rutherford a 'second Newton'. In just a few dramatic decades from the late nineteenth century, scientists upended what we thought we knew about the world around us, opening up a universe of waves, particles, and forces that enabled radical new inventions from radio to TV, X-ray machines to smoke detectors. A key mover of this new...

What makes our isles so shaky? Why was Christchurch not the first of our big quakes? And why won't it be our last? This book investigates our turbulent tectonics. It tells us how earthquakes are measured and described, and how scientists predict future shakes. It details New Zealand's lesser-known quakes, quakes that have had deadly consequences, and the tremors that...