Celebrating New Zealand: Te mana o Aotearoa
|
|
Kia ora. In February we celebrate Te Tiriti o Waitangi. 2015 marks 175 years since the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. Find out more about our founding document:
|
|
|
New and Recently Released!
|
|
| The greatest knight: the remarkable life of William Marshal by Thomas AsbridgeMedieval chivalry required knights to engage in bloody warfare and brutal tournaments in addition to fulfilling the civil expectations of loyalty to their feudal lords. William Marshal was called the "greatest knight" because he excelled in all aspects of knighthood: prevailing in battle, supporting his sovereigns (including Eleanor of Aquitaine and England's Henry II), and managing his own wealth and estates. Historian Thomas Asbridge paints a vivid portrait of Marshal in The Greatest Knight while detailing the customs of chivalry and the 12th-century political context of Marshal's life. This biography will enthrall anyone interested in British history or fascinated by Arthurian chivalric romance. |
|
|
Captured germans - British POW camps in World War I
by Norman Nicol
When we consider prisoner of war camps in the First World War we inevitably think of those on the Continent. We seem to have forgotten that in the UK there were huge numbers of enemy combatants and alien civilians interned in camps right across the realm. By the end of the war there were almost 500 internment camps in England and Wales, with another twenty-five in Scotland, two on the Isle of Man and one each in Ireland and Jersey. Between them they held around 250,000 individuals. It is a dark side of history and, for reasons that have never been fully resolved, many of the locations used to intern civilians and combatants during the First World War have been lost in time - until now. The author has, for the first time ever, tracked down the sites and history of each of these camps and all the places used for internment purposes in the UK during the First World have been brought together in one document.
|
|
|
Gideon's spies: the inside story of Israel's legendary secret service
by Gordon Thomas
This is one of the few books to have captured the true nature of the Israeli Government and the thorough process of the Israeli power elite. Ari Ben-Menashe, former Adviser on Intelligence to the Israeli Government, created the Mossad in 1951 to ensure an embattled Israel's future. The Mossad has been responsible for the most audacious and thrilling feats of espionage, counterterrorism and assassination ever ventured. Gideon's Spies has been created from closed-door interviews with Mossad agents, informants and spymasters, and drawing from classified documents and top-secret sources, revealing previously untold truths about the Israeli intelligence agency.
|
|
|
This divided island: stories from the Sri Lankan war
by Sammanth Subramanian
In the summer of 2009, the leader of the dreaded Tamil Tiger guerrillas was killed, bringing to a bloody end the stubborn and complicated civil war in Sri Lanka. For nearly thirty years, the war's fingers had reached everywhere: into the bustle of Colombo, the Buddhist monasteries scattered across the island, the soft hills of central Sri Lanka, the curves of the eastern coast near Batticaloa and Trincomalee, and the stark, hot north. With its genius for brutality, the war left few places, and fewer people, untouched. What happens to the texture of life in a country that endures such bitter conflict? What happens to the country's soul? Samanth Subramanian gives us an extraordinary account of the Sri Lankan war and the lives it changed.
|
|
|
Cataclysm 90 BC: the forgotten war that almost destroyed Rome
by Philip Matyszak
We are accustomed to think of the late Republic as a period in which Rome enjoyed almost uninterrupted military success against foreign enemies. Yet at the start of the first century BC, Rome, outnumbered and out-generalled, faced a hostile army less than a week's march from the Capitol. It is probable that only a swift surrender prevented the city from being attacked and sacked. Before that point, three Roman consuls had died in battle, and two Roman armies had been soundly defeated - not in some foreign field, but in the heartland of Italy. So who were this enemy who so comprehensively knocked Rome to its knees? What army could successfully challenge the legions which had been undefeated from Spain to the Euphrates? And why is that success almost unknown today? These questions are answered in this book, a military and political history of the Social War of 90-88BC.
|
|
|
Outlaws of the Atlantic: sailors, pirates, and motley crews in the age of sail
by Marcus Rediker
Outlaws of the Atlantic turns maritime history upside down, exploring the dramatic world of seafaring adventure, not from the perspective of admirals, merchants, and other builders of empire, but rather from the point-of-view of common people whose labors made that world possible - sailors, slaves, indentured servants, pirates, and other outlaws, whose formative experiences at sea are brought together for the first time. Against long-dominant national histories this book shows that important historical processes transpired on the vast, nationless commons called the sea: the rise of capitalism, the formation of race and class, and the creation, from below, of oppositional cultures that promised more just and democratic ways of life.
|
|
|
On liberty
by Shami Chakrabarti
Tells the story of threats to our freedoms and a highly personal, impassioned plea in defence of fundamental rights. Drawing on her own work in high-profile campaigns, from privacy laws to anti-terror legislation, the author shows the threats to our democratic institutions and why our rights are paramount in upholding democracy.
|
|
|
Ukraine crisis: what it means for the west
by Andrew Wilson
In this book, Andrew Wilson combines a spellbinding, on-the-scene account of the Kiev Uprising with a deeply informed analysis of what precipitated the events, what has developed in subsequent months, and why the story is far from over. Wilson situates Ukraine's February insurgence within Russia's expansionist ambitions throughout the previous decade. He reveals how President Putin's extravagant spending to develop soft power in all parts of Europe was aided by wishful thinking in the EU and American diplomatic inattention, and how Putin's agenda continues to be widely misunderstood in the West. The author then examines events in the wake of the Uprising, the military coup in Crimea, the election of President Petro Poroshenko, the Malaysia Airlines tragedy, rising tensions among all of Russia's neighbors, both friend and foe, and more.
|
|
Focus on: New Zealand History |
|
|
Coal: the rise and fall of King Coal in New Zealand
by Matthew Wright
Coal was the heroic fuel of New Zealand's 19th and early 20th centuries, the fuel on which the colony grew - the stuff that made possible the heating, cooking and lighting essential to family life, a lifestyle exalted during two World Wars and a depression. The hero fuel; pivotal, essential, exalted even as everybody grumbled about the mess it made. Then, suddenly, as the 20th century grew old and cynical, it wasn't. The fall from grace that was, at first, driven by convenience became, as the twentieth century turned into the twenty-first, a death spiral as coal was back in mind again, recognised - and demonised - as one of the most prolific generators of greenhouse gases around. Yet, as coal was vilified, NZ's production climbed steeply and the race was on to extract more and more to fuel exports to booming economies. Then demand fell sharply and Pike River reminded the nation that coal mining was as dangerous as ever it was in centuries past.
|
|
|
The healthy country? A history of life & death in New Zealand
by Alistair Woodward
Did Maori or Europeans live longer in 1769? Why were Pakeha New Zealanders the healthiest, longest lived people on the face of the globe for eighty years - and why did Maori not enjoy the same life expectancy? Why were New Zealanders' health and longevity surpassed by other nations in the late twentieth century? Through lively text and quantitative analysis, presented in accessible graphics, the authors answer these questions by analysing the impact of nutrition and disease, immigration and unemployment, alcohol and obesity, medicine and vaccination. The result is a powerful argument about why we live and why we die in this country (and what we might do about it). The Healthy Country? is important reading for anyone interested in the story of New Zealanders and a decisive contribution to current debates about health, disease and medicine.
|
|
|
Great tales from New Zealand history
by Gordon McLauchlan
Gordon McLauchlan tempts our imagination with 46 little-known tales from New Zealand's past. Here you will discover that: Auckland applied twice to the Colonial Office to be a separate colony from the rest of New Zealand, more about the man who wanted to be James Cook, when drinking beer legally became an 'art' on the West Coast, whether Kupe was man or myth, how Hawera seceded and became a republic, when and why the Americans planned to invade New Zealand, which aviation heroine was called a 'naughty girl who deserved a spanking', why a posse of politicians committed suicide...and more.
|
|
|
Beyond the imperial frontier: the contest for colonial New Zealand
by Vincent O'Malley
An exploration of the different ways Māori and Pākehā 'fronted' one another - the zones of contact and encounter - across the nineteenth century. Beginning with a pre-1840 era marked by significant cooperation, Vincent O'Malley details the emergence of a more competitive and conflicted post-Treaty world.
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|