'Men no longer whisper "Revolution", they shout it; and they no longer
carry banners, but throw bricks' - Letter home from Harvard, 1970. Jock
Phillips grew up in post-war Christchurch where history meant Ancient
Greece and home was England. Over the last 50 years - through the Maori
renaissance, the women's movement, the rediscovery of ANZAC and more -
Phillips has lived through a revolution in New Zealanders' understanding
of their identity. And from A Man's Country to Te Ara, in popular
writing, exhibitions, television and the internet, he played a key role
in instigating that revolution. Making History tells the story of how
Jock Phillips and other New Zealanders discovered this country's past.
In this memoir, Phillips turns his deep historical skills on himself.
How did the son of Anglophile parents, educated among the sons of
Canterbury sheep farmers at Christ's College, work out that the history
of this country might have real value? From Harvard, Black Power and
sexual politics in America, to challenging male culture in New Zealand
in A Man's Country, to engaging with Maori in Te Papa and Te Ara,
Phillips revolted against his background and became a pioneering public
historian, using new ways to communicate history to a broad audience.
