Title: Auckland: The Twentieth-Century Story
Author: Paul Moon
ISBN:978-1-99-004235-5
RRP: $45.00
Specs: 240 x 160 mm portrait, PB, 360 pp, b&w
Published: 5 April 2023

Auckland in 1999 would have been unrecognisable to the city’s residents at the beginning of the twentieth century — the result of dramatic changes in populations, cultures, beliefs, aspirations and senses of itself.

Auckland: The Twentieth-Century Story journeys through the mosaic of cultures and lifestyles, anxieties and hopes, disasters and triumphs, virtues and vices that led to this transformation.

Drawing on diaries, oral history, newspapers and other media, Paul Moon explores themes including housing, gardening, the harbours, tangata whenua struggles, shopping culture, the immigrant experience and the pervading sense that Auckland was simultaneously at the edge of the world yet at its centre.

Readers across New Zealand will experience many ‘Where were you when …?’ moments as they explore the changing landscapes of our largest city. Moon’s crisp writing gives readers everywhere a sense of a city that has felt triumph and failure but continues to develop so its citizens can proudly call it home.