Editor's Introduction

Abstract

The journal begins with Dougal McNeill's article on Harry Holland, the socialist parliamentary leader of the Labour Party from 1919 to 1933. This is particularly appropriate as we approach the centenary of the New Zealand Labour Party in 2016. Holland has often received a less than sympathetic reading by historians. Challenging the teleology of earlier historical narratives McNeill draws our attention to the place of 'conflict, contestation, and ideas in Labour's formation and in political history'.