In the late 1980s, New Zealand underwent a ‘quiet revolution’ – quiet only in that it didn’t involve guns and physical violence. It was a revolution of values. A remnant colony shucked off its deference to empire, opened its economy, liberalised its society and mores and set course towards a self-defining bicultural Aotearoa/New Zealand. This was an adventure into ‘new territory’.
Who drove this revolution? What drove their restless urge for change? What New Zealand did these
upstarts inherit? What did they do when they supplanted their elders? What Aotearoa/New Zealand did
they leave behind and what of the future? This book explores answers to these questions.
Colin James was a political journalist through the last half century and also worked with the Institute of Policy Studies on the machinery of government and climate change. He edited National Business Review
from 1983 to 1986 and New Zealand Books from 1993 to 1997. He has written eight books, a number of
small books and multiple papers, articles and speeches. He was Stout Fellow in 1991 and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2008 and a CNZM in 2023.