Remaking the Tasman World

Remaking the Tasman World explores New Zealand’s most important and extensive relationship - with Australia - on a variety of levels over the past century. The authors present a combined narrative about a ‘Tasman world’, a working region defined by a history of traffic in ideas, policies, objects and people. This wide-ranging, fresh analysis focuses on myriad ‘communities of interest’ that have spanned the Tasman Sea for over a hundred years, yet have largely been ignored by national histories. The concept of Australasia - the British world south of Asia - may have become old hat, but a Tasman world still operated, and in an increasing rush from the 1960s. From early maps of Australasia to accounts of shared state experiments, of a trans-Tasman business world, sport and Anzac bonds, the authors unearth a common past and reorder it in a history infused with wit and insight. They also look forward, envisioning a fresh start for a trans-Tasman community facing the 21st century.