James Belich is a New Zealand historian known for his work on the Maori Wars. Of Yugoslav descent, he was born in 1956 in Wellington. He gained an M.A. in history at Victoria University before travelling to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship to complete his Ph.D.. He has since lectured at both Victoria and Auckland Universities. A historian is a person who studies history. ... The term Māori Wars, now more commonly referred to as the New Zealand Wars, or sometimes The Land Wars, refers to a series of conflicts that took place in New Zealand between 1845 and 1872. ... Victoria University of Wellington is the oldest university in Wellington, New Zealand, established in 1897 as the fifth constituent college of the University of New Zealand by an Act of Parliament. ... Rhodes House in Oxford The Rhodes Scholarships were created by Englishman Cecil John Rhodes and have been awarded to applicants annually since 1902 by the Oxford-based Rhodes Trust on the basis of academic qualities, as well as those of character. ... Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... The University of Auckland is New Zealands largest research-based university by student numbers. ...
Belich is noted as a revisionist historian, and has consistently defied popular thought. He has created controversial theses such as that Maori in fact won the New Zealand Wars, and that British culture was never superior to that of Maori. Revisionism is a word which has several meanings. ...
Belich won the international Trevor Reese Memorial Prize for his The New Zealand Wars in 1987, and his follow-up work 'I Shall Not Die':Titokowaru's War (1990) was also highly praised, winning the Adam Award for New Zealand literature. The New Zealand Wars was turned into a major documentary series for Television New Zealand. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
JamesBelich's two volume History of the New Zealanders is insightful, involving, and inspired.
One example is the use of colours to label different stereotypes of Maori — red for warlike, green for environmentally sensitive, white for almost-European (even literally Aryan, in one of the more bizarre inventions of racial science), grey for "a dying race", fl for unsalvageably bestial, brown for loyal subordinates, and so forth.
Belich is often very funny, with a fondness for puns and a straightforward and sometimes unsubtle humour.
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