Won by the Spade: How the Royal New Zealand Engineers Built a Nation

Hardback

Main Details

Title Won by the Spade: How the Royal New Zealand Engineers Built a Nation
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Peter Cooke
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:688
Dimensions(mm): Height 240,Width 190
Category/GenreAustralia, New Zealand & Pacific history
Military history
Military engineering
ISBN/Barcode 9781775593645
ClassificationsDewey:358.220993
Audience
General
Illustrations 50 color & 230 b-w photos

Publishing Details

Publisher Exisle Publishing
Imprint Exisle Publishing
Publication Date 1 April 2019
Publication Country New Zealand

Description

This authoritative history of the Royal New Zealand Engineers offers a comprehensive account of the corps' actions, events and personnel from the New Zealand Wars of the 19th century to the present. It examines military engineering in New Zealand, the corps' role in overseas wars and home defences, and provides a contemporary record of New Zealand's contribution to military engineering, including demining operations, peacekeeping and civil aid missions. The book carries underlying themes of military innovation and engineering's contribution to national development. In New Zealand's context military engineering played a key role in building infrastructure in an otherwise undeveloped country. The warfare in the North Island saw military engineers do this utility work until the 1870s, when peace prevailed. Military roads and communication corridors aided military success and opened up the country. Similarly, the electric telegraph hemmed in rebellious tribes as effectively as weapons. Thereafter a tradition developed of citizen sappers taking their civil experience into the military and, after several overseas wars, bring the experience back to developmental roles in civic, transport, utility and industrial sectors. With about 40 per cent of early European settlers in technological occupations, theirs was going to be a society which took to military engineering well. And it did.

Author Biography

Peter Cooke specialises in New Zealand military history and industrial heritage, having written a dozen books to date. He edits two NZ military history periodicals, lobbies for defence heritage sites under threat and runs field trips to local battle sites. He lives in central Wellington.