Matthew Wright (1) (1962–)

Its surprising that a general history of coal in New Zealand hasn't been written before, and given the tumultuous events of the past few years it is timely. From the incredible boom in production fuelled by the Chinese commodity hunger of the past two decades, to the Cave Creek tragedy, then now (not covered in the book) the state coal company going into receivership, now is a good time to look at the context of these events.
Matthew Wright is a good clear writer, and pulls together primary and secondary sources to look at coal from geological origins, through fuelling the industrial revolution to the mixed views of it today. I felt the book sometimes was a bit high level, and could have done with more specific narrative explaining how coal was worked. The political and social context was well described but sometimes it felt as though the details of the coal industry itself were a bit glossed over. It would have been good to have much more detailed descriptions of the process of coal extraction, more details of life in coal communities and a bit more detail about the process of nationalisation.
The book is well edited, the only annoyance being the gross overuse of the word dissonance!
These are minor quibbles - for the general reader this book provides a good overview of the importance of coal in developing New Zealand, in our politics and economy and hints of its uncertain future.… (meer)