New Zealand's Empire

This edited collection is about New Zealand's history as an imperial power, and about its evolving place within the British Empire. It revises and expands the history of empire within, to and from New Zealand by looking at New Zealand's spheres of internal imperialism, its relationship with Australia, its Pacific Empire, and its outreach to Antarctica. In the study of the imperial past, both colonial and postcolonial approaches have often asserted the dualism of core and periphery, with New Zealand seen as periphery, or on the edge. This book critically revises our understanding of the range of ways that New Zealand has played a role as an imperial power, including the cultural histories of New Zealand inside the British Empire, engagements with imperial practices and politics of imperialism, and the circulation of the ideas of empire both through and inside New Zealand over time. It departs from earlier studies of both imperial and national histories by taking a new approach: it sees New Zealand as both a powerful imperial envoy, and as having its own sovereign role in Pacific nations, but it also examines the manifold ways in which New Zealanders look back at and comment on their relationships with 'the empire' over time. The book includes contributions from both established and emerging researchers, and will be useful for students of imperial history, histories of New Zealand, national history and histories of the Pacific.