Changing Times: New Zealand since 1945

By Jenny Carlyon

Pirate radio in the Hauraki Gulf and the first DC8 jets landing at Mangere; feminists liberating pubs and protests over the closing of Post Offices; kohanga reo and carless days: Changing Times is a history of New Zealand since 1945. From a post-war society famous around the world for its dull conformity, this country has become one of the most ethnically, economically and socially diverse countries on earth. But how did we get from Nagasaki to nuclear-free? What made us embrace small-state, free-market ideology with such passion? And were we really leaving behind a society known for its fretful sleepers and 'the worship of averages'? In Changing Times, Jenny Carlyon and Diana Morrow answer those questions, taking us from the 'Golden Weather' of post-war economic growth, through the globalisation, economic challenges and protest of the 1960s and 1970s, and on to the free market revolution and new immigrants of the 1980s and 1990s. Throughout, stories from the lives of New Zealanders are key: a tank driver yelling in his sleep after World War II, a woman in the Wairarapa discovering The Feminine Mystique, a Tapawera forestry worker losing his job. This is a powerful history of the transformation of New Zealand life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Auckland University Press
• Release date: Nov 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781869407834

Reviews for Changing Times

[bevok-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

With this book New Zealand finally has a contender in the surge of 'Modern History' publications which have flooded the UK market over the past few years. The likes of Sandbrook, Judt, Hennessey, Kynaston and Beckett have been successful in producing thumping volumes filled with well written and researched narratives exploring the recent past.
New Zealand authors and publishers seem to have resisted the trend until Auckland University Press commissioned this substantial work (what a shame they couldn't have released it in hardback). It is a well written book which covers the territory broadly and in a really balanced way. It does include other voices (mainly journalism but also some first person narratives) and I'd certainly recommend it.
It is hard for histories not to be whiggish. Although the authors are careful to give both sides of the story it is hard to escape the conclusion that the post war transformation of New Zealand has primarily been from stultifying monoculturalism to an exciting diverse culture, albeit with some inequality issues. This framework is a pretty sound way of understanding the period socially although I think we should be fairly reflective about whether contemporary New Zealand is any better or happier than that postwar alternative. There certainly seems to be a ying and yang about peaceful prosperous equality which emphasises conformity, and a diverse society where anything goes (almost) in terms of lifestyles but individual greed and inequality runs rampant.
The book has the feel of a commissioned history. It is very competently written with a reasonable array of secondary sources, but could be contrasted with some of the overseas authors mentioned earlier whose books contain more primary research, and who write with perhaps a bit more passion and depth. I think for example of Sandbrook's storytelling in describing Harold MacMillan's replacement - the narration of set pieces such as the Waterfront strike, Muldoon's downfall or the Crewe Murders (not mentioned) is far more functional. Space is a constraint in such a long period of course but more could be done.
Its always possible to quibble about what is left out. More detail on changes in education, the transformation of cities and to a car owning society, far more about rugby and sport (so central to our interests and identity) and more about culture and entertainment over the past thirty years would have been welcome. Although immigration has changed Auckland it probably received a bit too much coverage. Also it was a little unusual portraying Helen Clark's tenure during the Lange government as having "sat on the back benches and kept her thoughts to herself" (p. 338) without acknowledging the different perspective from observers such as Michael Bassett. That said I think Carlyon and Morrow have done an excellent job of covering the bases overall.
There is certainly scope for a series of more detailed narrative histories of the postwar period. I think the material is there. The sources of this book have more potential, and in addition much more could be gained by trawling newspapers, the archives and through personal interviews. The book is remarkably dependent on Barry Gustafson's research on Holyoake in particular for filling out the sixties era, and Marcia Russell's "Revolution" (1996) on the 1980s.
Overall a good job and a good beginning in understanding this period in more detail than the interpretations of our Sinclairs, Beliches and "Frontier of Dreams" with virtually no clangers (the only one that comes to mind is a mention of Auckland street signs in English and "Asian"). Recommended.