Atlas of the New Zealand Wars
Volume One 1834—1864,
Early Engagements to the Second Taranaki War
by Derek Leask
Derek Leask’s first volume of the ‘Atlas of the New Zealand Wars’ is a magisterial book in every respect. Its size and weight makes reading it on one’s knee a definite hazard to blood circulation, but its authority as a record of the seminal events in our history is at least commensurate with its bulk. James Belich, arguably the doyen of Land Wars historians, says ‘Derek Leask’s Atlas is a magnificent labour of love. It adds a whole new — visual — dimension to our understanding of the New Zealand Wars.’
Thirty years in the making, this eagerly-awaited work has benefited from the author’s career as a diplomat both in Wellington and various European capitals, with all that that implies for access, especially, to works of cartography that may otherwise have languished unseen. It must also be said that Leask’s status as a polymath has contributed hugely to the success of this outstanding book, for his academic fields do not include History per se.
Onward, then, to the work itself. At the risk of sounding fanciful, it can be suggested that an historical atlas is the nearest one can get to an historical video, for the shortcomings of history books can include events that move too swiftly or too sweepingly for ready understanding. This is particularly the case where time and distance act as barriers to comprehension, and in that context the presence of maps that are not only contemporary, but long-hidden in some cases, acts as an entrée both to analysis and evaluation alike.
Certainly, deriving full value from some of the maps requires dedication with a magnifying glass, but what would you? Atlases are not novels, and deserve to be pored over in the knowledge that, given their original size, the incorporation of contemporary maps is itself a masterpiece of the bookbinder’s art. Into the bargain, the author’s crisp, comprehensive and scholarly prose provides the best backup possible to the stories depicted in the maps.
Of more concern to this reviewer was that criticism of the maps originating in the fact that the prevalence of maps drawn by British or colonial cartographers somehow indicates bias in compilation. Such criticism not only overlooks the part played by cartography in warfare’s pre-aviation age, but is unfair in not recognising that, because Maori did not habitually use maps, their absence in all but three cases does not constitute bias.
Similarly, further criticism of the Atlas has centred upon some choosing to see it as a reinforcement of the notion that the New Zealand Wars were bipolar in nature, featuring only Crown vs Maori with no recognition of the variety of motives that precipitated a variety of stances, coalitions and alliances among kupapa during a period of some three and a half decades. Such criticism overlooks the fact that alliances during any period of civil war necessarily shift in nature and operation, including the English and American versions at ten years and some five years respectively. Not to mention that Charles Edward Stuart faced more Scots than he had at his back during the final battle of the later Jacobite rebellion at Culloden.
More positive, perhaps, is the impression that the single thing that makes this Atlas a work of genius is an Introduction—front, centre and unmissable—that outlines the central themes of the Wars as they shifted over the period under review. ‘Land and sovereignty’ says Leask, ‘were two strands of the same rope’ and his Atlas shows this all the way through. That is not contested.
However, one wonders. This reviewer has long pondered the extent to which land alienation in New Zealand was a consequence rather than an aim of contested sovereignty so that the Wars of the Sixties, at bottom, represented something of a ‘High Noon’ in the vexed question of who was to rule. In that context, perhaps the interaction of Hone Heke with the Kororareka flagpole was a little more than serial vandalism?
Volume One 1834—1864,
Early Engagements to the Second Taranaki War
by Derek Leask
Derek Leask’s first volume of the ‘Atlas of the New Zealand Wars’ is a magisterial book in every respect. Its size and weight makes reading it on one’s knee a definite hazard to blood circulation, but its authority as a record of the seminal events in our history is at least commensurate with its bulk. James Belich, arguably the doyen of Land Wars historians, says ‘Derek Leask’s Atlas is a magnificent labour of love. It adds a whole new — visual — dimension to our understanding of the New Zealand Wars.’
Thirty years in the making, this eagerly-awaited work has benefited from the author’s career as a diplomat both in Wellington and various European capitals, with all that that implies for access, especially, to works of cartography that may otherwise have languished unseen. It must also be said that Leask’s status as a polymath has contributed hugely to the success of this outstanding book, for his academic fields do not include History per se.
Onward, then, to the work itself. At the risk of sounding fanciful, it can be suggested that an historical atlas is the nearest one can get to an historical video, for the shortcomings of history books can include events that move too swiftly or too sweepingly for ready understanding. This is particularly the case where time and distance act as barriers to comprehension, and in that context the presence of maps that are not only contemporary, but long-hidden in some cases, acts as an entrée both to analysis and evaluation alike.
Certainly, deriving full value from some of the maps requires dedication with a magnifying glass, but what would you? Atlases are not novels, and deserve to be pored over in the knowledge that, given their original size, the incorporation of contemporary maps is itself a masterpiece of the bookbinder’s art. Into the bargain, the author’s crisp, comprehensive and scholarly prose provides the best backup possible to the stories depicted in the maps.
Of more concern to this reviewer was that criticism of the maps originating in the fact that the prevalence of maps drawn by British or colonial cartographers somehow indicates bias in compilation. Such criticism not only overlooks the part played by cartography in warfare’s pre-aviation age, but is unfair in not recognising that, because Maori did not habitually use maps, their absence in all but three cases does not constitute bias.
Similarly, further criticism of the Atlas has centred upon some choosing to see it as a reinforcement of the notion that the New Zealand Wars were bipolar in nature, featuring only Crown vs Maori with no recognition of the variety of motives that precipitated a variety of stances, coalitions and alliances among kupapa during a period of some three and a half decades. Such criticism overlooks the fact that alliances during any period of civil war necessarily shift in nature and operation, including the English and American versions at ten years and some five years respectively. Not to mention that Charles Edward Stuart faced more Scots than he had at his back during the final battle of the later Jacobite rebellion at Culloden.
More positive, perhaps, is the impression that the single thing that makes this Atlas a work of genius is an Introduction—front, centre and unmissable—that outlines the central themes of the Wars as they shifted over the period under review. ‘Land and sovereignty’ says Leask, ‘were two strands of the same rope’ and his Atlas shows this all the way through. That is not contested.
However, one wonders. This reviewer has long pondered the extent to which land alienation in New Zealand was a consequence rather than an aim of contested sovereignty so that the Wars of the Sixties, at bottom, represented something of a ‘High Noon’ in the vexed question of who was to rule. In that context, perhaps the interaction of Hone Heke with the Kororareka flagpole was a little more than serial vandalism?
Review by MJ Burr
Title: Atlas of the New Zealand Wars, Volume One 1834—1864, Early Engagements to the Second Taranaki War
Author: Derek Leask
Publisher: Auckland University Press
ISBN: 9781776711291
RRP: $89.99
Available: bookshops
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