Research Catalog

Title

New Zealand as it might have been 2 / edited by Stephen Levine.

Publication

Wellington, N.Z. : Victoria University Press, 2010.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Levine, Stephen I.

Description

413 p. : ill.; 21 cm.

Summary

"In 2006 New Zealand as it Might Have Been introduced a new way of looking at New Zealand's national experience - its history, society and politics, even its rugby - as 15 authors considered what could have been rather than simply what was. Now this new book offers a further 17 portraits of 'New Zealand as it might have been' - a mix of short stories and commentaries, some whimsical, others grim, each offering a perceptive and plausible new slant on significant events and personalities. New Zealand as it Might Have Been 2 extends the range of 'what if' scenarios to include literary figures - among them New Zealand's most famous writer, Katherine Mansfield - as well as the country's internationally respected national hero, Sir Edmund Hillary, examining moments in their lives when, with only a modest degree of adjustment, things could well have taken an entirely different turn. Political and military events also feature, with New Zealand's fate under German rule after the First World War, and under Nazi occupation during the Second, challenging reminders of the country's insecure position in a world at war. Other chapters revisit the meaning of ANZAC Day, the possible effects of a postwar visit by Winston Churchill, and New Zealand's avoidable choice to fight alongside the Americans in Vietnam. From Hone Heke's 19th-century challenge to British sovereignty through to the enactment of women's suffrage - from The Moyle Affair to the foreshore-and-seabed dispute, and on to John Key's decision to hold a new referendum on MMP in 2011 - this second volume of 'alternative history', New Zealand as it Might Have Been 2, offers a variety of visions of a country that nearly was: 17 possible pasts, leading to 17 unique and different New Zealands."--Publisher's description.

Alternative Title

New Zealand as it might have been two

Subject

• Imaginary histories
• New Zealand > History > 21st century
• New Zealand > History > 20th century
• New Zealand > History > 19th century

Genre/Form

• History
• Counterfactual histories
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

What if Germany had destroyed the British navy at the Battle of Jutland in 1916? / Ian McGibbon -- What if a poet had taken us out of the Great War? / Dean Parker -- What if New Zealand had come under Nazi occupation? / Stephen Levine -- What if Winston Churchill had visited New Zealand? / Bob Gregory -- What if New Zealand troops had not fought in Vietnam? / Donald Anderson -- What if Katherine Mansfield had returned to New Zealand? / Patrick Evans -- What if Samuel Butler had not left New Zealand? / Roger Robinson -- What if Bill Pearson's novel Coal Flat had kept its homosexual themes? / Paul Millar -- What if Hone Heke had won the war against the British in the mid-1840s? / Paul Moon -- What if Governor Grey had not ordered the invasion of the Waikato in July 1863? / Giselle Byrnes -- What if the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 had never been passed? / Janine Hayward -- What if the Great Storm of 1862 had sunk the Cabinet? / John E. Martin -- What if there had never been a 'Moyle affair'? / Hugh Eldred-Grigg -- What if New Zealand had reintroduced an upper house? / Harshan Kumarasingham -- What if New Zealand had not adopted MMP? / Stephen Levine and Nigel S. Roberts -- What if women had not won the vote in 1893? / Caroline Daley -- What if Edmund Hillary had never climbed Mount Everest? / Hugh Logan -- Epilogue / Stephen Levine.

ISBN

• 9780864736154 (pbk.)
• 0864736150 (pbk.)

OCLC

• 688543994
• SCSB-12784703

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library