Shaping Aotearoa. How revolutionaries reworked a nation and its culture

In the late 1980s, New Zealand underwent a ‘quiet revolution’ – quiet only in that it didn’t involve guns and physical violence. It was a revolution of values. A remnant colony shucked off its deference to empire, opened its economy, liberalised its society and mores and set course towards a self-defining bicultural Aotearoa/New Zealand. This was an adventure into ‘new territory’.  Who drove this revolution? What drove their restless urge for change? What New Zealand did these upstarts inherit? What did they do when they supplanted their elders? What Aotearoa/New Zealand did they leave behind and what of the future? This book explores answers to these questions.
Colin James was a leading political journalist through the last half century He edited National Business Review from 1983 to 1986 and has written eight books. He was Stout Fellow in 1991 and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2008 and a CNZM in 2023.