Histories of Hate, edited by Matthew Cunningham, Marinus La Rooij and Paul Spoonley, is a landmark work exploring intolerance and extremism in Aotearoa New Zealand. It looks critically at the motivations behind the country’s radical right activity, and in doing so, identifies patterns over time.

This work fills an important gap in our country’s history. It also enables us to speculate on what we might expect to see in 2023 and beyond, and what we can do as a society to intervene.

The book reveals the complexities of Aotearoa’s extremist history – from the precursors of the radical right during British settlement in the late nineteenth century to today’s QAnon conspiracists and keyboard warriors. 

The contributors explore a diverse mix of ideas, idealogues, organisations, social clubs and political parties over time. Subjects covered include colonisation, antisemitism, discrimination against Chinese immigrants, anti-communism, skinhead gangs, support for white minority governments in southern Africa, opposition to Māori Treaty rights, the religious right, and recent events such as the 15 March 2019 terrorist attacks in Christchurch and the rise of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. These are critically examined in a three-fold framework:  radical right as an ideology; radical right as a structural response; and radical right as a political behaviour.

In Histories of Hate, editors Matthew Cunningham, Marinus La Rooij and Paul Spoonley have brought together experts from multiple disciplines, including historians, sociologists, political scientists, kaupapa Māori scholars and experts in religious and media studies, to create a benchmark text that will be the definitive reference for years to come. A compelling read and an important, timely book, Histories of Hate is the first of its kind in Aotearoa. It traverses our socio-political and extremist landscape in historical and contemporary contexts, exploring and scrutinising the social and cultural intolerances that continue to shape New Zealand society today.

Matthew Cunningham is a public servant, author and professional historian. He has a diverse publication history, including research monographs, oral histories, peer-reviewed journal articles, Waitangi Tribunal-commissioned research reports, public history articles and journalistic and general interest pieces.

Marinus La Rooij has degrees in history and religious studies from the University of Otago and Victoria University of Wellington and has published on antisemitic conspiracy theories in 1930s New Zealand and Australia. Marinus has worked as a district inquiry facilitator for the Waitangi Tribunal and as a research manager for the Crown Forestry Rental Trust.

Paul Spoonley completed his PhD on the New Zealand radical right in the 1980s. He is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Massey University and, until 2019, was the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. He received the Science and Technology Medal from the Royal Society for his contribution to cross-cultural understanding in 2009 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2011.

Histories of Hate: The Radical Right in Aotearoa New Zealand edited by Matthew Cunningham, Marinus La Rooij and Paul Spoonley | Otago University Press | Published 9 March 2023 | $50

For a review copy, interview and extract enquiries please contact: Penny Hartill – director hPR 021 721 424, penny@hartillpr.co.nz