Paradise Reforged

Download or read book Paradise Reforged written by James Belich and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2002-02-28 with total page 614 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 analyzing 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 [New Zealand'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.