Bruce Jesson was one of modern new Zealand's greatest political thinkers and writers until his untimely death in 1999. For the first time, his best work has been collected and edited to provide this extraordinary overview, from the rise of Robert Muldoon to the turn of the 21st century. These articles, columns and essays build to create a kind of history in instalments, covering all the great issues of the times, from political and economic revolution to the search for cultural and national identity. Trenchantly critical of the political establishment, left or right, Jesson was that rarest of writers - an intellectual with the common touch, able to convey complex truths with great clarity and precision. Absorbing and provocative, Jesson's words remain as relevant today as whey they were first written.

Table of Contents

Foreword; Acknowledgements; Bruce Jesson: The Making of a Patriot; I. THE EARLY REPUBLICAN YEARS, 1975-81; II. WRITING FOR TWO AUDIENCES IN MULDOON'S LAST YEARS, 1982-84; III. LABOUR AND THE NEO-LIBERAL REVOLUTION; IV. OPPOSING LABOUR, 1988-90; V. POLITICS AND JESSON IN TRANSITION, 1990-93; VI. MAKING A FUTURE, 1993-99; AFTERWORD