A Sort of Conscience: The Wakefields

Temple, Philip

ISBN 10: 1869402766 / ISBN 13: 9781869402761

Published by Auckland University Press, Auckland, 2002

About this Item

This copy feels unread and has a tiny repaired closed tear to the jacket. Scarce in hard cover. This remarkably engaging study of a Wakefield family that played a prominent role in the settlement of New Zealand and other English colonies draws on a rich store of personal letters to paint a portrait of a complex family whose influence crossed the globe. A gripping family story, this volume also provides an accessible history of British colonial settlement in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. For postage outside NZ this volume weighs 1.3 kg and can be checked for its postage cost to your location at NZ Post Ratefinder We do not make a profit from postage. (TM).

Seller Inventory # 037353

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Sort of Conscience: The Wakefields
• Publisher: Auckland University Press, Auckland
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1869402766
• ISBN 13: 9781869402761
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Aotearoa, New Zealand
  • Biography
  • History

About this title

Synopsis

At once notorious and visionary, Edward Gibbon Wakefield and his brothers played a key but controversial role in the early British settlement of New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Once famed as New Zealand's 'Founding Fathers', they have since become the arch-villains of all post-colonial scenarios of the past. Philip Temple, deciding that neither myth made good historical sense, saw that, astonishingly, there was no adequate biography of the family most responsible for the establishment of the Wellington, Nelson and Canterbury settlements.
In stitching together a net of letters and documents, Temple has produced the most comprehensive account yet of the Wakefield family's role in colonial development and self-government across the old Commonwealth. He follows not only the brothers' careers but also establishes the role of the Wakefield women and gives detailed accounts of Edward Gibbon Wakefield's first elopement and his later abduction of Ellen Turner. Temple explores Edward Gibbon's tortuous career through colonial politics from the 1830s to the 1850s and shows how he and his brothers and son strongly influenced, for good and bad, the founding of new nations. This engaging narrative, written in a strong and evocative literary style, relates a story of courage and vision, cupidity and stupidity, high risk and adventure, success against the odds and, ultimately, terrible tragedy.

About the Author

Philip Temple won a 1996 National Library research fellowship to work on a biographical study of the Wakefield family.