New Zealand Books

Handbook of markets and economies: East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand. ed. by Anthony Pecotich and Clifford J. Shultz II. M.E. Sharpe, 2006. 712p bibl index afp ISBN 0-7656-0972-X, $139.95 . Reviewed in 2006jun CHOICE. * More from M.E. Sharpe *
Particularly over the last few decades, significant economic and social progress has increased the importance of Asian markets and economies relative to other regions of the world. Although progress has been somewhat erratic and has not affected all nations to the same degree, some observers see the possibility of a gradual shift in power from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The upward struggles of Asian economies, including Australia and New Zealand, as well as their potential for further development, are captured in this work, which draws the expert insights of 39 contributors into a single volume via the editing of Pecotich (Univ. of Western Australia) and Shultz (Arizona State Univ.). The challenging task of instilling coherence into disparate contributions was aided by utilizing a common framework of eight systems in examining each country: natural environment/geography, political, economic, social, knowledge, educational, executive, and marketing. The framework was employed, as circumstances permitted, as a guide through the 18 chapters, each covering a single country in the region. Chapters contain extensive references, and statistical data were condensed into tables where appropriate. Those seeking marketing, economic, and cultural information relative to Pacific nations will find this handbook a convenient and accessible resource. Summing Up: Recommended. Public, academic (lower-division undergraduate and up), and professional collections. -- W. C. Struning, emeritus, Seton Hall University

One of my favourite books from this author. Her books are always light, yet written with such wisdom, compassion and understanding. An Essie Summers tale would be incomplete without some twists and misunderstandings along the way. I have 43 of her books and plan to complete my library one day. An old-fashioned writer in the best sense of the world - how she will be missed.

Its really good to know that we have an amazing country with amazing people. I am glad to be living in such a country.

Guy Bransby seems to me to be more typical of the British gentleman-adventurer officer of the 19th Century than of the national servicemen and the time servers in obscurity so common in the last fifty years and in today's service. He spent most of his serving time in the "backwaters" of empire as a light infantryman and an advisor. He was seconded to Vietnam with the New Zealanders, served on the NW Frontier, in Yemen, and on attache duty.
Newly returned to England, and newly married, he was seconded to the RAF Regiment as a trainer. For those of you not familiar with this unit, it's composed of "blue men in khaki togs", and is mostly light infantry, combined with local air defense, tasked with keeping bad guys (Spetsnaz and SAS types) off the flight line and out of the hangers.
Now Bransby as a long-service officer is taking orders from some others twenty years younger and is content to fill out his time.
But, due to his facility in Latin American Spanish gained as an aide to a Uruguayan general, he is chosen to head a team of interrogators in the Falklands.
This is the story of his adventures and misadventures. Well told tales and with a wry humour which serves him well. If you like tales of interesting service this is for you.

Gary Martin was the best teacher in programming that I had the pleasure of having while a student. We had Gary's pleminary book on Pascal years ago. I can not wait to see his latest updates. Gary's logical and methodical approach with code examples that really work are very helpful in establishing programming as a fun and exciting career. Ten years later I still refer to Gary's book for concepts. This after ten years of programming in assembly, C, G, and Fortran. Excellent book! Money well spent

As one of the co-authors of this book, I naturally rate it highly ;-) But honestly I think it will be of interest to many people - from academic colleagues with an interest in how higher education systems develop and change in the light of changing circumstances to the more general reader who wishes to understand why there is so much fuss about a name (university vs polytechnic/college) in higher education circles.

The chapters making up the three system-specific sections are written by authors with different perspectives - one from the government/system level and two from the institutions' perspective in each section. These are well related to each other and the general theme of national higher education reform by the editor Prof David Teather in his introduction and conclusions.

I commend the book to anyone interested in how university systems develop and the responses of governments and institutions to demands for change and reform in higher education.

My son, who is 8, is obsessed with reference guides and natural history. He also likes human stories behind history. He loved this book. I definitely recommend it for a child who wants to know more about Everest.

Shipping was quick, which is great when you have a son who keeps saying, "When will my book be here?"

I lived through the challenging Muldoon and Rowling years in New Zealand, so I was pleased to be able to get this book to learn what really happened behind the scenes. The author has done an excellent job of capturing the essence of Muldoon and his government team in writing and photographs. This is a book that I had trouble putting down and would recommend it to those wanting to know about NZ retail politics of the period 1970-1990 and how good and bad government decisions are really made.

Since 1985, the Waitangi Tribunal has had licence to investigate Maori claims of violations of the Treaty of Waitangi throughout Aotearoa/New Zealand's history. The Tribunal's mandate went beyond the purely legal realm which Iwi claims had taken place in for 140 years, and entered into a new, historical setting. In the wake of political events that have shattered nearly 20 years of political consensus on the Tribunal's role in Aotearoa/New Zealand society, Tribunal Historian Michael Belgrave has produced a book which outlines the histories and intricacies of four of the major claims.

Belgrave's approach in Historical Frictions is not simply to describe the nature of each claim, and its resolution. Rather, each of the four case studies -- Muriwhenua, Ngai Tahu, Taranaki, and Chatham Islands -- is discussed as a layered history; a history whose narrative changes over time, in response both to the needs of the Iwi making the claim, and to the legal setting in which the claim is made. It may surprise readers to discover that almost all of the claims heard so far by the Waitangi Tribunal have been tested in court at some time, even many times, over the past 150 years. Historical arguments have thus developed in response both to iwi's needs to understand their past, and to assert their rights within a Western judicial system that has been reluctant to hear them, to say the least. Change over time is thus a major theme of Belgrave's work, and indeed one of the key strengths of Historical Frictions is to bring to light the connections between Aoteroa/New Zealand's past and present, to demonstrate the relationship between the actions of settlers and rangatira in the nineteenth century and the politics of settlement today.

The strongest part of Belgrave's book is also the densist. The first two chapters, which lay the historiographical and methodological groundwork, are a complex assessment of the role of the Tribunal in New Zealand society, and the conflicting emphases of the legal and historical discourses with which the Tribunal must contend. Of particular importance is the latter, where the so-called `objectiveness' of Western academic history contrasts not only with Maori oral history, but also the long and involved legal, and thus adversarial, approach to `truth'. These tensions are perhaps borne out best in Belgrave's analysis of the Treaty itself -- Belgrave finds that the Treaty is a text whose meaning is indeterminate and shifting, and whose meaning today would be barely recognisable in the context in which it was signed.

This, of course, is where the Frictions come in. For Belgrave, the past in a colonial society is not a foreign country, but an object that is negotiated and renegotiated, and cultural contact is not something that happens once, and for one generation, but is ongoing, perhaps for all times. Belgrave's book will give little comfort to supporters of Don Brash's `one law for all' arguments -- indeed, Belgrave believes that the Waitangi Tribunal is unlikely to put an end to Maori claims -- but it offers an indepth and nuanced analysis of the Waitangi Tribunal process, as well as the histories behind the claims. Not given to simplification and reductionism, Belgrave has rendered the complexities of a history of colonisation and loss, and attempts at redress and resistance, in ways that are engaging, and perhaps offer new avenues of historical inquiry at a time when history is once again up for grabs.

I read this book back in 1995 and am surprised I am the first Amazon user to review it. I found this book tremendously worthwhile.

It is an excellent overview of the history of the Pacific Islands. If you are interested in this topic than you couldn't ask for a better introduction to it than this.