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.”

Geoff Parker: Captain Cook Deserves History – Not Cherry-picked Propaganda

Professor Tony Ballantyne's article, New Ferry Names: Winston Calls it Woke, But Debating Cook’s Legacy is Nothing New, presents itself as a balanced examination of Captain James Cook's legacy. Yet the article follows a familiar pattern: it highlights every negative episode associated with Cook while giving little attention to his extraordinary achievements, the historical context of the eighteenth century, or the many positive assessments of his contribution made by generations of historians.

No serious historian claims Cook was perfect. He was an eighteenth-century Royal Navy officer operating in an era when encounters between European and Indigenous societies often involved fear, misunderstanding and sometimes violence. But judging him solely through the moral standards of the twenty-first century risks replacing historical analysis with modern political judgement.