Interview: Erik Olssen talks about The Origins of an Experimental Society: New Zealand, 1769–1860

Erik Olssen is an emeritus professor at the Department of History, University of Otago. His research interests focus on the relationships between politics, society, ideas, culture and economics. He was elected an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi. He talks to NZ Booklovers about his new book, The Origins of an Experimental Society: New Zealand, 1769–1860.

What inspired you to write the book and how long did it take?

I began thinking of writing a general history in the 1970s but it took another

decade to conceptualise it in the way it has turned out; I wrote the first draft in the summer of 1998-99 but didn’t much like it.

How did you approach the research?

The research originated from my teaching a paper that I first presented in 1986 on the Early History of Australia and New Zealand, which evolved from an earlier one on those two countries and the Pacific islands more broadly. This involved mastering the published literature – the historiography and published primary sources (such as Beaglehole’s edition of Cook’s journals). Some of these I read more than once. In the course of teaching I identified various topics which had been ignored but which I thought important, such as the origins of civil society or domestic gardening, and topics, often people, who I thought had not been done justice – this often required me to get to grips with the literature relating to a related topic in another nation or doing a stint in the archives. 

What are some of the key things readers will learn?

The main points are that New Zealand’s history is more complex than many modern accounts suggest; that these complexities are often fascinating in themselves; and that what is happening in people’s minds and psyches is just as important as the environmental and structural imperatives that have dominated explanations since the Enlightenment. One will learn quite a lot about the Enlightenment, especially the English and Scottish versions.

What did I most enjoy about writing this book?

Apart from my love for history, I’m fortunate in that I also enjoy conducting archival research and writing. I especially enjoy finding out new things. For instance, when I realised the relevance of ethnology and ethnography to my work, I found myself discovering an entire fascinating field of research, to which  Cook and his ‘experimental gentlemen’ had contributed. I also really enjoyed discovering the extensive French reports, even though getting my French-reading skills back up to scratch was somewhat tedious. I also enjoyed doing a paper in Māori because, in learning a language, you learn quite a lot about the culture that you otherwise wouldn’t. Perhaps the most enjoyable things were tracking down collections of papers (letters etc) still held in private hands relating to Edward Gibbon Wakefield and Bishop George Selwyn. These also involved finding and visiting their descendants in remote English villages. Getting there and living there was also enjoyable.

Tell us a little about The Origins of an Experimental Society?

It's a history of New Zealand between Cook’s first voyage, which puts New Zealand on the world map, and the start of the first Taranaki War in 1860. AUP have given me the space to explore many themes and issues that others skip over quickly. Because it argues that NZ’s post-1840 history can only be understood if you realise the significance of the Enlightenment, and of ideas more generally, there is also quite a lot about that; and because Europeans became fascinated by Polynesians, and eventually the Māori, there is much about the impact of these peoples on each other, especially after systematic colonisation began in 1840.

What inspired you to write it?

There was no Eureka moment. The idea of writing a history of the country grew out of my dissatisfaction with earlier histories and my teaching which mainly focussed on New Zealand in its regional context (including Australia and the Pacific), my history of a particular province (Otago), and my long-standing work on southern Dunedin (the earliest industrial suburbs in the country).

What research was involved?

Mastering the published primary sources (such as Cook’s journals) and the fast-expanding body of secondary sources (history books, articles, essays etc). I also set out to master the sources and scholarly literature on literatures relating to art,  religion, and education which most NZ historians had ignored. For this volume I did most of my primary research into topics which I thought had been neglected, such as gardening, and key individuals (notably Edward Gibbon Wakefield, George Grey, and Bishop George Selwyn) who had, in my view, been reduced to caricatures.

What was your writing process?

The day is to spend the morning writing and the afternoon reading and undertaking related work (email correspondence, library visits (to get books or do research).  I take notes in long-hand but draft using my computer (I had long used a typewriter). Revising my draft also takes a lot of time. I never do any such work on a Saturday!

If you had a sound-track to accompany the book, name some songs you would choose?

I chose three from the period but as they all related to whaling I’ve added a hymn  and a psalm as well (the missions were probably more important than whaling). The whaling songs are: ‘New Zealand Whales’, music & words anon; ‘Come all you Tonguers’, music & words anon; and ‘Soon May the Wellerman Come’, ditto. Given that the Wellers lived just along the road from me I’d be keen for you to use that (all can be found in New Zealand Folksongs: Songs for a Young Country, ed. Neil Colquhoun. As for a hymn & a psalm: a favourite psalm then (as now) is ‘The Lord is My Shepherd’ (Psalm 23) & for a popular Wesleyan hymns ‘And Can it Be That I Should Gain’ (1738), Charles Wesley’s conversion song (still popular I’ve been told); or ‘Abide With Me’ (1847), written by a Scottish Anglican.

What did you enjoy most when writing the book?

The research trips – especially memorable was a day being taken (with my wife and Cook’s journals) by Professor Atholl Anderson, the distingished archaeologist and ethno-historian, on his boat to visit Ship Cove where Cook had spent c. 170 of the 328 days he spent in New Zealand.

How did you celebrate finishing the book?

With a small dinner for some close friends and family.

What’s your favourite book this year?

I mine history books towards the end of a project, and although I usually try to read one or two novels over Christmas, this past one, my wife and I came down with COVID (for the first time). Later, to make up, I read and enjoyed Orbital.

What’s next on my agenda

Volume two.

Auckland University Press