Secret History: State Surveillance in New Zealand, 1900–1956.

The historiography of state surveillance of citizens in New Zealand is meagre by comparison with that of Australia and Great Britain. This is partly a function of relative size but also a consequence of far greater restrictions on access to sources in New Zealand. The historiography of state surveillance in New Zealand before 1956 has been impoverished, until now. With the publication of Richard Hill and Steven Loveridge’s Secret History, that part of the equation has been rectified, despite the difficulties they encountered along the way. In the first of a projected two-volume study, they place New Zealand on the map of global state surveillance historiography.