The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
—L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between (1953)
Ian Fraser quotes this line in the final episode of the 1996 documentary series Revolution, which discusses the free-market reforms instituted by the Fourth Labour and National Governments in the 1980s and early 1990s.[1] In the context of the programme, the quotation evokes the gulf that separates the New Zealand of the earlier 20th century—with its tightly managed economy and relatively high employment, but often stultifying parochialism—and that of 1996—economically liberal, more outward-looking and competitive, but arguably less equal. …
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Learn more and download catalogue with full text via the Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi.
[1] The series is available in its entirety on NZ On Screen.
