The New Zealand Experience at Gallipoli & the Western Front

Media release

Brilliant account of our roles in the main battles of the First World War – and how these reshaped our society forever

In The New Zealand Experience at Gallipoli and the Western Front, historian Matthew Wright goes to the heart of how the First World War affected the lives of ordinary New Zealanders. The book analyses what it was like for New Zealand soldiers at the two main battle fronts where they fought, and frames it with the social effects back home.

Beginning with an outline of pre-war New Zealand society, Wright portrays the extraordinary world of war into which its young men plunged as they entered the baptism of fire at Gallipoli.

The end of innocence that the withdrawal from the Dardanelles implied led to a harder, more fatalistic approach in the theatre of mechanised death that was the Western Front. By war’s end, hope and glory had faded, replaced by a new view of military heroism – in a country forever changed.

Professor Tom Brooking of the University of Otago has described the work as ‘The best and most comprehensive book on New Zealand’s experience at Gallipoli and the Western Front.’ Historian Christopher Pugsley, author of Gallipoli: The New Zealand Story, who provided the foreword says, ‘It is an important book; it grips you from the opening pages. I urge you to read it.’

Author Matthew is a prolific writer who has authored more than 50 books, principally relating to New Zealand history, including many military histories. Among his works are the Bateman Illustrated History of New Zealand and The New Zealand Wars. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

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