The Rise and Fall of James Busby

Paul Moon’s biography succeeds in rescuing James Busby from the condescension of posterity. It does so by situating Busby in the larger contexts—Scottish Enlightenment, religious, British imperial, Maori, settler colonial—necessary to understand his controversial career. * John Stenhouse, Associate Professor of History, University of Otago, New Zealand *In The Rise and Fall of James Busby, we encounter the British Resident who for seven years maintained relationships between the chaotic Colonial Office, the mercurial New South Wales government, a lawless pre-treaty New Zealand and the nascent state which emerged after Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Through Paul Moon’s incisive research we meet the obsessive, prickly, land-hungry Busby of historic renown, but we also encounter the lesser-known stories of the friend to Hone Heke, the administrator who could be generous, thorough and principled, and the loyal husband and father. Busby’s central place in the early colonial history of Aotearoa New Zealand is at last detailed in these pages. * Lloyd Carpenter, Senior Lecturer in Maori Studies, Lincoln University, New Zealand *[Paul Moon] has done both Busby and us a service by rescuing him from historical marginalisation and providing a fuller portrait of the man whose efforts laid the groundwork for the Treaty. * Australian Historical Studies *

Paul Moon is Professor of History and Head of the School of History at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. Among his twenty-five published books are This Horrid Practice: The Myth and Reality of Traditional Maori Cannibalism, A History of New Zealand in the Twentieth Century, a trilogy of volumes on the Tuhoe tohunga (expert) Hohepa Kereopa, as well as biographies of Governors Hobson, FitzRoy, and the Ngapuhi chief Hone Heke, and Encounters: The Creation of New Zealand, which was shortlisted for the 2014 Ernest Scott Australasian Prize in History.