By Alan Grey
(Out of print)
1994
$29.95
476pp, limpbound
213 x 137mm, 46 maps
ISBN 0-908812-34-5
The past 200 years have seen the reconstruction of the world's human and biological geography through scientific and technical discovery, economic and social change, the expansion of populations and empires, and wars. Up to fifty million Europeans migrated to new lands, sweeping aside or assimilating indigenous peoples and rem-making landscapes in their search for prosperity within world-spanning markets.
Sparsely populated and heavily forested, Aotearoa was drawn into these events. Robber economies and ranching were followed swiftly by intensive pastoral and agricultural development. Out of the resulting destruction of forest for pasture New Zealand emerged, becoming ever more urban like its British cultural hearth.
Alan Grey traces the context of New Zealand's becoming; from uninhabited islands to 1935, when most aspects of today's landscapes were in place. The result is essential reading for historians, geographers and all with an interest in New Zealand's history and landscapes.
