Book cover of Migration, Ethnicity, and Madness: New Zealand, 1860-1910

Book description

This book provides a social, cultural, and political history of migration, ethnicity, and madness in New Zealand between 1860 and 1910. Its key aim is to analyse the ways that patients, families, asylum officials, and immigration authorities engaged with the ethnic backgrounds and migration histories and pathways of asylum patients…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Migration, Ethnicity, and Madness as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I love that this book tells a bleak migration story–the stories of those for whom migration was the beginning of a period of struggle. The most often told migration stories are the successful ones. The migrants who arrived in their new land and excelled–built a business empire, became prime minister, bought up huge swathes of land, and passed their wealth onto their descendants. Even at the time, letters home to family who stayed behind seldom spoke of hardship or difficulties.

Taking lunatic asylum records as its core source, this book allows this other end of the settler experience spectrum to…

If you love Migration, Ethnicity, and Madness...

Book cover of Aggressor

Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

Want books like Migration, Ethnicity, and Madness?

Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Migration, Ethnicity, and Madness.

Browse books like Migration, Ethnicity, and Madness

Book cover of Settlers: New Zealand Immigrants from England, Ireland and Scotland 1800-1945
Book cover of A Woman of Good Character: Single Women as Immigrant Settlers in Nineteenth Century New Zealand
Book cover of Scottish Ethnicity and the Making of New Zealand Society, 1850-1930

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,397

readers submitted
so far, will you?

📚 If you like Migration, Ethnicity, and Madness, you might also like...

Book cover of The Tao of Poison

The Tao of Poison by Isham Cook,

A poisonous maiden, a Daoist sex cult, and a violent insurgency.

The polyandrous Yan family in China's rural Shaanxi Province takes in two carpenter brothers. When one brother is convicted of murder after killing their neighbor in a dispute, a constable threatens to expose the family's rumored polyandry and extorts…

Book cover of Draakensky: A Supernatural Tale of Magick and Romance

Draakensky by Paula Cappa,

A wind sorcerer. A dark spirit. An unsolved murder.

On the haunted Draakensky Windmill Estate, sketch artist Charlotte Knight arrives to live on the property, hired to illustrate the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke—a bright and lucrative opportunity to boost her struggling art career. 

She meets the reclusive spinster Jaa…

5 book lists we think you will like!