'Over the last decade Tony Ballantyne has driven forward a new vision of colonial history - one in which the trans-imperial mobility of ideas, people and things comes into sharper relief; in which the history of any one place is re-conceived through its connections with elsewhere. This book shows how, in reshaping our understanding of New Zealand's place in the world, he has also reconfigured Britain's imperial history.' - Alan Lester, Professor of Historical Geography, University of Sussex. 'Tony Ballantyne is the most influential historian working in NZ today. Webs of Empire demonstrates his archival richness and mastery of his profession, provoking new interpretations of history and of historians. This is compelling and essential reading.' - Lydia Wevers, Professor and Director of the Stout Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington.

Dr Tony Ballantyne is Professor of History at the University of Otago. His publications include many articles and edited collections, and the monographs Between Colonialism and Diaspora: Sikh Cultural Formations in an Imperial World and Orientalism and Race: Aryanism in the British Empire.

Introduction: Relocating Colonial Histories -- 1. Race and the Webs of Empire -- Connections -- 2. Writing Out Asia -- 3. Teaching Maori About Asia -- 4. India in New Zealand -- 5. Te Anu's Story -- Empire -- 6. Sealers, Whalers and the Entanglements of Empire -- 7. Christianity, Colonisation and Cross-Cultural Communication -- 8. War, Knowledge and the Crisis of Empire -- Writing -- 9. Archives, Empires and Histories of Colonialism -- 10. Mr Peal's Archive -- 11. Paper, Pen and Print -- 12. Writing and the Culture of Colonisation -- Place -- 13. Thinking Local -- 14. On Place, Space and Mobility in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand -- Conclusion: Writing the Colonial Past.