Memory, history, nation, war : the official histories of New Zealand in the Second World War, 1939-45 : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirement of the Doctor of Philosophy in History, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
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Date
2012
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Massey University
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Abstract
The Official Histories of the Second World War are the largest historiographical project
in New Zealand's history. They are still used as core reference texts for individual battles
and for the war as a whole.
The War Histories were intended to fill a wide range of roles. They were to be 'at once a
memorial, a souvenir, an interpretation of events and a record of experience in certain
specialised fields'. The conflicting nature of these roles created a double dichotomy within
the War History project, between an affirmative national memory and an empirically accurate
history on the one hand and between the critical evaluation of campaigns and the recognition
of service and sacrifice on the other. This thesis examines this dichotomy through a
framework of memory, history, nation and war. It uses four case studies from the War
History series, Journey towards Christmas, by S.P. Llewellyn, 23 Battalion, by Angus Ross,
Crete , by Dan Davin and Battle for Egypt, the Summer of 1942, by J.L. Scoullar, to consider
the extent to which the tensions between the roles of the Histories influenced their production
and their place as contemporary histories in post-war New Zealand.
While the War Histories represent the largest repository of information on New Zealand in
World War Two, the thesis contends that to use the series now as reference works only is to
miss a significant opportunity. The War Histories were Official, but they were also
contemporary and collective in their production. Each volume in the series is a valuable
historical text in its own right, and can be read and deconstructed as representative of both the
individual and society that produced it.
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Keywords
Second World War, World War II, New Zealand, Historiography, History, Histories, War histories