'Superb' book whets appetite for more

A new book on New Zealand at war is a superb springboard for further reading, writes Jim Sullivan.

World War 1 may yet win the Battle of the Books as another title is added to the barrage of World War 1 histories fired off since 2014. 

That it is taking place  100 years after the event is no bad thing, as the conclusions of historians with a century of hindsight may offer a more measured picture than the books that began their long march immediately after  World War 2.

The title New Zealand Society at War 1914-1918 suggested at first that this might be the

World War 1 equivalent of Nancy Taylor’s much-praised The Home Front (1986), which in two information-packed volumes dealt with the  World War 2 versions of many of the topics covered in New Zealand Society at War 1914-1918.

The new book has not the elbow room to explore the topics in the same detail but is a superb springboard for what could well be a dozen books expanding on topics it covers.

There is much that is new to me and about which I would like to read more.

Hew Strachan makes a good case for our Anzac Day service to be at 10am rather than dawn.

Richard Hill introduces the problems faced by the police being seen as shirkers (though in a reserved occupation) and dealing with oddities like the "anti-shouting" law.

David Littlewood’s stories on the military service boards whet the appetite for many, many more.

An expanded version of Ian F. Grant’s examination of newspapers (they were less war-dominated than we might imagine) is also worth a book.

Jeanine Graham probably has hours of unpublished oral history to expand her lively chapter on children during the war.

New Zealand Society at War 1914-1918 drops hints that beg for more background. We are told general orders forbade officers from drinking in the same bars as the other ranks.

What prompted this?

Did Freyberg’s explanation of New Zealanders and officialdom, "they don’t salute, but if you wave they generally wave back", not apply during the earlier conflict?

In fact,  the book, while brimming with information, poses enough questions to warrant more from the  19 historians, all experts in their fields, who have provided the chapters.

Topics range from unions (Erik Olssen) and sport (Greg Ryan) to pacifists (David Grant) and churches (Peter Lineham), and every chapter provides new insights into four dramatic years in our history.

In the spirit of a critic riding a hobby horse rather than as a serious denigration of the book’s contents,  something on the illustrations.

Digital printing is now widely established as the most economical means of producing short-run books but far too often, as in this case, it does not always measure up when it comes to illustrations.

The pictures seem to have been tipped in as something of an afterthought.

There is no cross-referencing to the main text and the captions are not attractive.

About half the 40-odd illustrations are line drawings or cartoons that might well have reproduced satisfactorily in the appropriate spots in the text.

Nine are repetitive crowd scenes compressed to limited space.

Many are scanned from half-tone illustrations in weekly papers like the Otago Witness, which do not always reproduce well.

Worst of all, a montage of 75 MPs has been squashed into a half page and  becomes almost meaningless.

All in all, the illustrations might well have been dispensed with, apart perhaps for a couple.

One is the photo of conscientious objector Thomas Moynihan in full kit undergoing forced drill at the hands of two Rottweiler NCOs, snapped perhaps using one of the ubiquitous "soldier’s Kodaks" and somehow ending up at Archives New Zealand.

Equally fascinating are the drawings sent by young Denis Malone to his father, the revered Colonel Malone of Chunuk Bair.

New Zealand Society at War 1914-1918 not only rewards handsomely any reader interested in social and military history but also lets drop the good news that James Watson, who contributed the chapter on politics, is working on a book about the home front.

The bombardment continues.

- Jim Sullivan is a Patearoa writer.

 

Win a copy

The ODT  has five copies of  New Zealand Society at War 1914-1918,  edited by  Steven Loveridge, to give away courtesy of Victoria University Press. For your chance to win a copy, email helen.speirs@odt.co.nz with your name and postal address  in the body of the email,  and ‘‘NZ at War Book Competition’’ in the subject line, by 5pm on Tuesday, October 18.

 

LAST WEEK’S WINNERS

• Winners of last week’s  giveaway, Commonwealth,  by Ann Patchett, courtesy of Allen & Unwin, were: Sue Wood, of Arrowtown, Judy Davies, of Wanaka, and Noelene Johnstone, Maria Dillon and Murat Ungor, all of Dunedin.

Comments

Bravo. NZ Social History, long may it be published. Fancifully, I like to imagine that the cover photo shows punters leaving the Greymouth races, intent on ignoring the anti shouting and licensing laws.