New Zealand was the last major landmass, other than Antarctica, to be settled by humans. The story of this rugged and dynamic land is beautifully narrated, from its origins in Gondwana some 80 million years ago to the twenty-first century. Philippa Mein Smith highlights the effects of the country's smallness and isolation, from its late settlement by Polynesian voyagers and colonisation by Europeans and the exchanges that made these people Maori and Pakeha to the dramatic struggles over land and recent efforts to manage global forces. A Concise History of New Zealand places New Zealand in its...