8 Jun 2014

Historian Jock Phillips

From Sunday Morning, 11:08 am on 8 June 2014

A Man s CountryJock Phillips is one of those rare breed of historians with an ability to fuse an academic approach with a more populist take on culture and history.

Jock is probably best known for his book Man’s Country? The image of the Pakeha male: a history. But it’s as editor of the on-line encyclopedia Te Ara that Jock is likely to have the most lasting influence on how New Zealanders view themselves.

Wallace Chapman talks to Jock Phillips about the individuals, books, and events that have helped shape his own ideas – a list that includes his father, historian Neville Phillips, writers Robin Hyde, Michael King, Henry David Thoreau and John Dewey.