A Blighted Fame: George S. Evans 1802-1868, A Life

This is a second-hand copy of the book A Blighted Fame: George S. Evans 1802-1868, A Life by Helen Riddiford and published by Victoria University Press in 2014. It is hardback and has a dust jacket. The dust jacket is covered in a non-adhesive PVC cover to keep it safe. This can be easily removed as it is only folded in place.

From the inside flap:

George Samuel Evans, barrister, editor and politician, was a man of his time. A brilliant scholar with formidable skills in both oratory and journalism, he was bred to pursue the goals of civil and religious liberty. His dissenting background and upbringing in his fathers' parish in East London gave him a passion for reform, and led him eventually to New Zealand, a colony of ragged uncertainty, ambition, rivalry and deprivation. When Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the architect of the systematic colonisation of New Zealand, virtually abandoned his project, it was Evans who took up the reins. He and a small band of others assured the scheme's continuation and, for better or worse, spurred a reluctant government into taking action to procure the country for the Crown. In those crucial first years of settlement he was the outspoken critic of successive governors at a time when government and missionaries appeared to combine forces to pit themselves against the undertaking of the New Zealand Company. He continued his work for New Zealand in England, and later forged a parliamentary career in Victoria. Although a permanent tribute to him exists in the name of Evans Bay in Wellington, today Evans has become little more than a footnote. He is irrevocably and fatally linked to the New Zealand Company, which has come to be regarded by many historians with suspicion. Yet there were few at the time and for many years after who would have disagreed with New Zealand Premier William Fox's assessment of Evans as ‘perhaps the most influential originator of New Zealand Colonization we ever had'.

Condition: this is a used book in good condition. The dust jacket is covered in a non-adhesive PVC cover to keep it safe. This can be easily removed as it is only folded in place. Someone has written on the title page as it was obviously a gift at some point or another.

Format: hardcover
Pages: 503
Publisher: Victoria University Press
Year: 2014
ISBN: 9780864738967