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Dear Oliver : uncovering a Pākehā history / Peter Wells.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Auckland, New Zealand : Massey University Press, 2018Copyright date: ©2018Description: 333 pages : illustrations (some colour) ; 21 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0994147368
  • 9780994147363
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Additional physical formats: Online version:: Dear OliverLOC classification:
  • DU420.W455 D437 2018
Summary: "A fresh way to look at New Zealand's history. When writer and historian Peter Wells found a cache of family letters amongst his elderly mother's effects, he realised that he had the means of retracing the history of a not-untypical family swept out to New Zealand during the great nineteenth-century human diaspora from Britain. His family experienced the war against Te Kooti, the Boer War, the Napier earthquake of 1931 and the Depression. They rose from servant status to the comforts of the middle class. There was army desertion, suicide, adultery, AIDS, secrets and lies. There was also success, prosperity and social status. In digging deep into their stories, examining letters from the past and writing a letter to the future, Peter Wells constructs a novel and striking way to view the history of Pākehā New Zealanders"--Back cover.
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Biographies Davis (Central) Library Biographies Biographies B WEL Available T00804481
Biographies Davis (Central) Library Biographies Biographies B WEL Available T00813235
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A fresh way to look at New Zealand's history When writer and historian Peter Wells found a cache of family letters amongst his elderly mother's effects, he realised that he had the means of retracing the history of a not-untypical family swept out to New Zealand during the great nineteenth-century human diaspora from Britain. His family experienced the war against Te Kooti, the Boer War, the Napier earthquake of 1931 and the Depression. They rose from servant status to the comforts of the middle class. There was army desertion, suicide, adultery, AIDS, secrets and lies. There was also success, prosperity and social status. In digging deep into their stories, examining letters from the past and writing a letter to the future, Peter Wells constructs a novel and striking way to view the history of Pakeha New Zealanders.

Includes bibliographical references.

"A fresh way to look at New Zealand's history. When writer and historian Peter Wells found a cache of family letters amongst his elderly mother's effects, he realised that he had the means of retracing the history of a not-untypical family swept out to New Zealand during the great nineteenth-century human diaspora from Britain. His family experienced the war against Te Kooti, the Boer War, the Napier earthquake of 1931 and the Depression. They rose from servant status to the comforts of the middle class. There was army desertion, suicide, adultery, AIDS, secrets and lies. There was also success, prosperity and social status. In digging deep into their stories, examining letters from the past and writing a letter to the future, Peter Wells constructs a novel and striking way to view the history of Pākehā New Zealanders"--Back cover.

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