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City at the Centre

Historian Professor Emeritas Margaret Tennant FRSNZ is the lead editor of this new urban history titled 'City at the Centre: a History of Palmerston North'. She also wrote or co-wrote four of the chapters. 

Professor Emeritus Russell Poole FRSNZ has also written one of the key chapters on the development of Palmerston North and its infrastructure. 

Published by Massey University Press, the volume argues for a shift in the focus of New Zealand urban history from the four main centres to the regions. Palmerston North was one of a second wave of colonial towns in New Zealand, characterised by its own distinctive pattern of race relations and social and economic mix. The thematically-arranged book tests many of the generalisations made about New Zealand history on a national basis against the experience of a provincial city, covering such ground as environmental change, the role of tangata whenua, patterns of organisational life, education, work and sport and leisure.