James Belich

Paradise Reforged: a History of the New Zealanders from the 1880's to the Year 2000 James Belich

This book is the eagerly awaited companion to Professor James Belich's acclaimed Making Peoples, published in New Zealand, Britain, and the United States in 1996. Making Peoples was hailed as a turning point in the writing of New Zealand history.

Paradise Reforged picks up where Making Peoples left off, taking the story of the New Zealanders from the 1880s to the end of the twentieth century. It begins with the search for 'Better Britain' and ends by analysing the modern Maori resurgence, the new Pakeha consciousness, and the implications of a reinterpreted past for New Zealand's future. Along the way, the book deals with subjects ranging from sport and sex, to childhood and popular culture.

Critics hailed Making Peoples as 'brilliant' and 'the most ambitious book yet written on this country's past'. Paradise Reforged, its successor, adopts a similarly incisive, original sweep across the New Zealand historical landscape in confronting the myths of the past. That some of its themes are uncomfortably close to the present makes the result all the more fascinating.