Barrie Davis: Captain Cook by Tony Ballantyne

Captain Cook and the Unsettled Afterlives of Empire is the latest book by Tony Ballantyne, who is Distinguished Chair Poutoko Taiea in History at the University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka. Ballantyne writes (The Post, 8 August, here):

“Cook was not a great hero, but a flawed, uncomfortable and difficult cultural ancestor, who provokes and challenges, reminding us of the weight of history and the painful legacies of an imperial past.”