New Zealand’s Great War
$59.90
A large hardback edited by John Crawford and Ian McGibbon, containing over 650 pages, this book examines New Zealand, the Allies and the first World War, throwing new light on New Zealand’s most traumatic event.
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The First World War was undoubtedly the most traumatic event in Zealand’s history. With a population of only about one million in 1914, the Dominion dispatched just over 100,000 soldiers overseas as members of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force during the course of the war. It proved a costly undertaking: more New Zealand servicemen died in France and Flanders between April 1916 and November 1918 than in the whole of the Second World War. Almost every New Zealand family was affected in some way by this great bloodletting, which continued to have a major impact on New Zealand society for many years after the hostilities ended.
This book is an illuminating collection of 32 essays on aspects of New Zealand’s involvement in the war. They were originally delivered in the ‘Zealandia’s Great War’ conference in November 2003 by a distinguished array of historians from New Zealandand around the world. The essays demonstrate the reasons why New Zealand took part in the conflict, its response to developments during the war, the experience of the soldiers, sailors and airmen who took part both on the battlefield and off it, and the attitudes of those who remained at home to the ideas and events of the war. It is thus a multi-level history of New Zealand’s involvement, throwing light on New Zealand’s international relations and the approach of New Zealand soldiers to combat.
