Charlotte Macdonald, "Garrison World: Redcoat Soldiers in New Zealand and across the British Empire" (Bridget Williams Books, 2025)

About this episode

This episode features Professor Charlotte Macdonald discussing her book on the role of redcoat soldiers in New Zealand and the British Empire during the 19th century.

The pivotal year of 1870 brought down the curtain on the redcoat garrison world at both the metropolitan and colonial ends of the empire . . . In fewer than forty years, less than a lifetime, Aotearoa had gone from being a Māori world in which rangatira dominated, to a colony in which the settler state was in control of the economy, politics and people’s social destiny. Garrison World: Redcoat Soldiers in New Zealand and across the British Empire (Bridget Williams Books, 2025) by Professor Charlotte Macdonald explores the lives of soldiers, sailors and their families stationed in Aotearoa New Zealand and across the British empire in the nineteenth century. Spanning the decades from 1840 to 1870, this major new history from Charlotte Macdonald places the New Zealand Wars within the wider framework of imperial power. It shows how conflict and resistance throughout the empire, from rebellion in India to the Morant Bay uprising in Jamaica, were connected to the colonial project in New Zealand. At the centre of this history are the thousands who served in the British military – from rank-and-file soldiers and bluejackets drawn from working-class Britain and Ireland, to officers from…

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guest: Charlotte Macdonald

Topics covered

• military history
• colonialism
• New Zealand
• British Empire
• 19th century
• social history

Keywords

• redcoat soldiers
• Aotearoa
• settler state
• imperial control
• military
• colonial project
• archival detail
• personal accounts

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Bridget Williams Books

Places: New Zealand, British Empire

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