History
The Department of History has a strong research tradition and has performed very well in both the 2003 and 2006 rounds of the Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF). Staff within the Department have established reputations in their areas of expertise and the department as a whole has an energetic research culture.
History is much more than the study of the past: it is the study of how and why the past has meaning in the present. History is one of the most exciting subjects offered at University ...
For further information go to the Department of History.
Recent Deposits
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The Radio Doctor: Broadcasting health into the home. Assessing New Zealand's changing public health needs through the talks of Dr H. B. Turbott, 1943 - 1984
This thesis examines the Department of Health’s most enduring health education series (1943 – 1984), written and presented over the radio by Department of Health official Dr Harold Bertram (H.B.) Turbott. The cultural ... -
New Zealand and the labour traffic, 1868-1870
Since the days of the discoverers, island people had been kidnapped. Occasionally, they served as interpreters, but principally, they provided cheap labour, and during the early years of the nineteenth century, bêche-demer ... -
New Zealand's trade with the Pacific islands, 1870-1900
The hopes and dreams of those who wished to see New Zealand as the political and commercial headquarters of an island empire in the South Pacific saw the first practical attempt made in this direction in the year 1847. ... -
New Zealand interest and participation in the Labour traffic prior to Bishop Patteson's death, 21 September 1871
As interest in the virgin Pacific Islands grew in the 1860s, it was inevitable that those New Zealanders closely involved in the peculiar difficulties of cotton plantations should see the recruitment of labour with the ... -
Global Orangeism, 1795-2020: Growth, influence, and decline
The Loyal Orange Institution or Orange Order was founded amidst agrarian conflict in a small town in County Armagh, Ireland, in 1795. Despite these seemingly insignificant beginnings, the Orange Order has managed to spread ... -
Labours of love: Marriage and emotion in Aotearoa/New Zealand. 1918 - 1970s
Conceiving of intimate life as a domain of emotional effort, this thesis charts the labours of Māori and Pākehā New Zealanders who lived and loved between the close of the Great War and the late-1970s. It asks how the work ... -
How Convenient are our Conveniences? The demise of the underground facilities in Dunedin 1910-1980s.
Nineteenth and early twentieth century public conveniences in New Zealand are becoming a rare and endangered part of our wider cultural and built heritage. These often-overlooked facilities are more than just reminders ... -
‘The State of History’: Oral History, War Memory, and State-Sponsored History in New Zealand, 1945-2008
This thesis traces the development of oral history in New Zealand from 1945-2008 through state-sponsored history projects on war. It begins with a discussion of the production of the Official History series about the Second ... -
Stanhope Andrews: Ten Years Leading the New Zealand National Film Unit
The aim of this project is to examine Stanhope Andrews’ role as Producer and founder of the New Zealand National Film Unit (NFU) and trace the historical foundations of how the film unit was established in 1941. Andrews’ ... -
Labour groups and railway construction in Otago, 1869-1873
This long essay is concerned with identifying labour groups involved in railway construction in Otago between the years 1869- 1873. Once identified the object is to see whether any of these groups fit a "railway navvy" ... -
Phormium tenax in New Zealand history
At the outset of my research on this subject, I was given the opportunity of interviewing an old flax-miller at Foxton, Mr. E. W. Sutton, who, while giving me considerable valuable material, told how many men, during their ... -
'No ordinary tourists' : the Second New Zealand Division in the Middle East, 1939-1945
For the members of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2NZEF) and, in particular, the Second New Zealand Division (2(NZ) Division), World War Two would offer two profound, overlapping experiences. Tne first was the ... -
The views of the New Zealand clergy of 1860 on race relations
Both as participants in the events of 1860 and as commentators on them, the missionaries and clergy who were active in New Zealand at that time demand our attention. This essay is concerned with their actions only insofar ... -
The Lawrence Athenaeum and Miners' Institute : a fragment of goldfields history.
Originally this thesis was intended to cover just the period during which goldmining contributed significantly to life in Lawrence from 1861 until the closing of the Blue Spur Consolidated Goldmining Company just before ... -
All quiet on the home front? : the impact of the Second World War on the township of Mosgiel
The Second World War proved a momentous time for those living in New Zealand. Life for civilians on the home front was affected to a much greater extent than it had been in 1914-18. This heightened 'total war' prompted ... -
European women's dresses in nineteenth-century New Zealand
Dress encodes complex cultural information and operates as an aesthetic sign system, indicating ideas about status, wealth, and taste. Fashionable women's day dresses of the mid to late nineteenth century in Western culture ... -
'Odd men from the Pacific' : the participation of Pacific Island men in the 28 (Maori) Battalion in the Second World War
The Maori Battalion's wartime experience forms an important part of the New Zealand and Pacific Island heritage. This study explores the participation of Pacific Islanders in the 28 (Maori) Battalion during World War II. ... -
Anglo-Indian lives in Pakistan through the lens of oral histories
Anglo-Indians are the legacy of European colonialism in South Asia. They are of mixed Indian and European descent. Since the late 20th century Anglo-Indians have been the focus of much ethnological research that generally ... -
Helen Smaill's Photograph Album: Traces of care in the mission archive
For my thirtieth birthday my mother gave me a photograph album she had compiled using an online template that was then printed and sent to her home. She had spent hours looking through old photographic prints that she keeps ... -
Signs of higher life : a cultural history of domestic interiors in New Zealand, c.1814-1914
This thesis represents the most comprehensive analysis of nineteenth century New Zealand domestic interiors produced to date. While anthropologists have acknowledged the special significance of the house in domesticated ...