Dr Don Brash: My Oxford Union Speech

The House believes that the Sun should never have set on the British Empire

Mr/Madame President, I speak in opposition to the motion.

But I also want to acknowledge at the outset that the British Empire did more good things for more people than any other empire in human history.

Barrie Davis: Rise and Fall of the British Empire

Alice Roberts this year published Domination: The Fall of the Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity. Professor Roberts is an academic specialising in anatomy and biological anthropology. She has published a number of books and clips of her hundred or so television programs are available on You Tube. Roberts is an excellent presenter who can visit a dig and discuss the site with the workers in their own terms while telling an interesting story to a general audience. It is marvellous popular science.

Mike Butler: The British Empire – a force for good

The British Empire – a force for good, a new book, is a refreshing antidote to the current zeal for decolonisation, which encourages us to reimagine history as “a morality play in which white men are the baddies”.

Author John McLean, a writer and publisher, who has a MA in history and a Bachelor of Law from Victoria University in Wellington, and did Bar finals at Grays Inn in London, tells the stories of Britain’s 101 colonies established over 400 years, capturing the boldness and zeal of the pioneers who built the empire.

The story of the British Empire starts during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Jack Vowles: The idea of ‘sovereignty’ is central to the Treaty debate......

.....why is it so hard to define?

The coalition government’s approach to Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi) will inevitably set the scene for Waitangi Day next week, with the ACT Party’s Treaty Principles Bill already generating protest and ill will.

But ACT’s initiative, even if ill-conceived, could still open up a widened debate that is long overdue.

Karl du Fresne: A fresh appraisal of an unfashionable subject

I’ve just finished reading a recently published book by my friend and long-ago boss, the Sydney-based New Zealand author and journalist Robin Bromby.

Tepid Whisky by Paraffin Lamp is subtitled Life and Work in Outposts of the British Empire in the Twentieth Century. It’s a very detailed and substantial piece of work on an aspect of history that most scholars either shy away from or approach in antagonistic terms because it’s considered ideologically beyond the pale.

Robin himself acknowledges that the history of the British Empire is “a subject one addresses now with caution”. From a 21st century perspective, the idea that European imperial powers could claim ownership over foreign territories at will, even when they had no particular purpose for them (as was sometimes the case), is unthinkable. But there was a time in living memory when it was considered entirely natural – in fact a matter of pride – that the sun never set on the British Empire. And as Robin notes, the administrators who ran those distant outposts were often motivated by high ideals.

Tony Simpson: The damned curriculum: a camel with only one leg

A critique of the new history lessons

In the 1980s the Customs Department engaged my services. They were faced with new public service legislation which devolved many powers to them as an agency including some things they had never had to do before. These included a requirement to be aware of the implications of the Treaty of Waitangi and to have a staff sensitive to it in all their activities. After several false starts they asked me to see if I could come up with a solution. This was, in the event, a half-day small group seminar based on five segments which began with pre-European Māori culture and centred on the Treaty, bringing us up to the present day. It was really a crash course in New Zealand history. It set out the reasons why many Māori were very aggrieved at the position in which they found themselves. My seminar was predicated on the assumption that at the end of it Customs staff might not agree with the policy but at least they would be better informed. More than 600 Customs officers attended the courses; I truly believe that they mostly appreciated it.