In this presentation Ben Schrader offers some reflections on the writing of his recent book The Big Smoke: New Zealand Cities, 1840-1920 (Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2016).
Why did he write the book and how did he go about it? What were the challenges and rewards of writing a broad story in a narrowly researched field? He then reveals some of the most important findings from the project and suggests ways they increase our understanding of New Zealand’s past. Finally, he ponders how the work might shape future research. Might, for example, his focus on the lived experience of city dwellers suggest social history is making a long-awaited comeback?
Recorded at the National Library of New Zealand, 5 April 2017.
The tragedy of the SS Talune and the 1918 influenza pandemic
Polly Plum and the first wave of feminism
‘Researching kindergarten: the endeavours of women for the play of children’
‘The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, redux’
Jazzy Nerves, Aching Feet, and Foxtrots: New Zealand’s Jazz Age
How does a city make a writer?
Māori Women, Politics and Petitions in the 19th Century
The Great War for New Zealand
Counting redcoats: Who were the imperial soldiers serving in New Zealand in the 1860s?
The Broken Decade: 1928 - 39 by Malcom McKinnon
Past Caring? Gender, Work and Emotion - A talk by Professor Barbara Brookes
Hearth and Home: Reconstructing the Rural Kitchen, c1840–1940’
The Māori War Effort at Home and Abroad 1917
New Zealand’s Rivers: can we learn from history?
KŪPAPA - the bitter legacy of Māori alliances with the Crown
Richard Seddon: King of God’s Own
Dr Steven Loveridge: New Zealand Society at War
Dr Grant Morris: ’Legal Villain’
Andrew Francis: Enemy aliens and the New Zealand experience
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