Menu

Wananga landing Wananga landing
CUP book

Remaking the Tasman World

20 November 2023

By Philippa Mein Smith, Peter Hempenstall and Shaun Goldfinch

APPLY NOW

December 2008
$39.95
296pp, Paperback
152 x 228mm, 16pp colour illustrations
ISBN: 978-1-877257-62-9

Remaking the Tasman World explores New Zealand’s most important and extensive relationship – with Australia – on a variety of levels over the past century. The authors present a combined narrative about a ‘Tasman world’, a working region defined by a history of traffic in ideas, policies, objects and people.

This wide-ranging, fresh analysis focuses on myriad ‘communities of interest’ that have spanned the Tasman Sea for over a hundred years, yet have largely been ignored by national histories. The concept of Australasia – the British world south of Asia – may have become old hat, but a Tasman world still operated, and in an increasing rush from the 1960s.

Remaking the Tasman World

From early maps of Australasia to accounts of shared state experiments, of a trans-Tasman business world, sport and Anzac bonds, the authors unearth a common past and reorder it in a history infused with wit and insight. They also look forward, envisioning a fresh start for a trans-Tasman community facing the 21st century.

'This scholarly yet accessible book by a team of historians should have considerable appeal
to geographers.' Eric Pawson, New Zealand Geographer

Philippa Mein Smith holds a Personal Chair in History and is Director of the New Zealand Australia Research Centre at the University of Canterbury. Her previous books are A Concise History of New Zealand (2005), A History of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific (as co-author with Donald Denoon) (2000), Mothers and King Baby (1997), and Maternity in Dispute (1986).

Peter Hempenstall is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Canterbury. He is a Pacific historian and biographer and a frequent trans-Tasman traveller, believing that only regular transfusions of both Kiwi and Aussie culture can keep antipodeans alive and healthy. Among his books are Pacific Islanders under German Rule (1978); The Meddlesome Priest: A life of Ernest Burgmann (1993); and (with Paula Tanaka Mochida) The Lost Man: Wilhelm Solf in German history (2005).

Shaun Goldfinch is Associate Professor at Nottingham University Business School and formerly a senior lecturer in the Department of Politics at the University of Otago. He is the author of Remaking New Zealand and Australian Economic Policy (2000), co-author of Dangerous Enthusiasms: E-government, computer failure and information system development (2006), and co-editor of Handbook of International Public Sector Reform (2008).

Privacy Preferences

By clicking "Accept All Cookies", you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyse site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.