In the late 1990s, after years of skilled and stable employment, John Morgan joined the ranks of the ‘precariat’, another of the countless victims of neoliberal reforms and so-called labour market flexibility. I was a classic case study proving that once a person had taken a temporary job after a spell of unemployment, the results were lower earnings for years ahead.

The experience drove his quest to understand how this ‘three-and-a-half-decade aberration in our foundational heart and soul, values and politics’ came about and - as we face another period of unemployment, dislocation and uncertainty - how we can stop it from repeating.

No dry economic text, Reset is a sweeping account that connects New Zealand’s geology and landscape, human migrations, political and social history, and the deep-seated values that emerged - values that, according to Morgan, we urgently need to restore. His solutions are equally sweeping and challenge us to think beyond self-maximizing business as usual to regain our common purpose.