James Belich Book order

The catastrophic plague of 1346, known as the Black Death, not only decimated Europe's population but also catalyzed a remarkable cultural and economic transformation. James Belich explores how this tragedy led to increased disposable incomes and heightened demand for luxury goods, driving Europe's expansion and innovation. The scarcity of labor accelerated the adoption of new technologies, such as water and wind power, while a unique "crew culture" emerged. Belich situates Europe's rise within a broader global context, highlighting the concurrent flourishing of empires in the Middle East and Russia.

The Prospect of Global History offers a new approach to the study of history, looking at the subject across a greater chronological range and seeking perspectives from sources beyond conventional European narratives.

Revealing the enormous tactical and military skill of Maori, and the inability of 'Victorian interpretation' to acknowledge those qualities, Belich's account of the New Zealand Wars offered a very different picture from the one previously given in historical works. Maori, in Belich's view, won the Northern War and stalemated the British in the Taranaki War of 1860-61 only to be defeated by 18,000 British troops in the Waikato War of 1863-64. The secret of effective Maori resistance was an innovative military system, the modern pa: a trench-and-bunker fortification of a sophistication not achieved in Europe until 1915. According to the author, 'The degree of Maori success in all four major wars is still underestimated - even to the point where, in the case of one war, the wrong side is said to have won.' First published in 1986, James Belich's groundbreaking book reshaped our understanding of the 'bitter and bloody struggles' between Maori and Pakeha in the New Zealand Wars. This bestselling classic of New Zealand history is a must-read - and Belich's larger argument about the impact of historical interpretation resonates today

Pioneering study of the anglophone 'settler boom' in North America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand between the early 19th and early 20th centuries, looking at what made it the most successful of all such settler revolutions, and how this laid the basis of British and American power in the 19th and 20th centuries.