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Erik Newland Olssen (born 1941) ONZM FRSNZ is a New Zealand historian whose research focuses on the linkages between social structures, politics, and the world of ideas at four spatial domains – the local, provincial, national and global. In the first third of his academic career, most of Olssen’s research examined labour history, especially the working-class mobilisation in New Zealand from 1880 to 1940. He has published several articles and monographs, including a biography of John A. Lee, a social history of New Zealand from 1880-1940, a study of revolutionary industrial unionism and the wave of unrest in the years before World War I and a history of Otago, a province of New Zealand. An interest in the industrial and political mobilisations of sections of the working class led Olssen, between 1974 and 1976, to plan a comparative study of occupational and geographical social mobility in his home suburb of Caversham, regarded as one of the most industrialised areas of New Zealand at that time. Olssen holds many positions of distinction, has won literary awards and in 2002 received The Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (O.N.Z.M.) . Olssen had a range of academic positions in the Department of History at the University of Otago from 1969 until his retirement in 2002, from when he has been Emeritus Professor at the same university.

Education and career
Olssen was educated at Kings High School in Dunedin, New Zealand from 1955 to 1960, being inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in 2021. In 1964 Olssen graduated from Otago University with a Bachelor of Arts and with Master of Arts (1st Class Honours) in 1965, both in History and Political Science. His thesis John Alexander Lee: the stormy petrel: his ideas, their inspiration and influence and his attempts to translate his ideas into legislation, was completed in 1965. After five years at Duke University, he completed a doctorate, a study of Dissent from Normalcy: Congressional Progressivism, 1918-25 and was awarded his PhD in 1970. While at Duke he also took several papers in sociology and spent a period in 1967 at a summer school at Cornell, funded by the Mathematical Association of America to study the relevance of mathematics and statistics to various historical issues.

At the University of Otago, Olssen was a Lecturer in History between 1969 and 1978, an Associate-Professor from 1978 to 1983 and Personal Chair, 1984-2002. He was Head of History, 1998-93 and 2000-2002 and as of 2023 Olssen is Emeritus Professor following his retirement in 2002.

Development and impact as a social historian
Olssen was raised in a Labour socialist family. He acknowledged the influence of his father, who as a historian and a socialist, valued scholarship and never allowed personal politics to intrude into his work as a lecturer. Olssen said that this instilled a respect in evidence-based  scholarship which valued truth and  shaped and moderated how he developed a personal position on the origins of capitalism. Reflecting on his involvement in Labour politics in the 1970s and 1980s, Olssen recalled he had joined the party because he felt socialism offered a way toward justice and equality in New Zealand. At the time he identified that "finding the social roots to Labour's rise was the scholarly wing of [his] political engagement", and becoming involved in the working class Caversham branch of the Labour Party, allowed him to study "class formation and political mobilisation from within a working class community."

Olssen agreed with an interviewer that he chose John A. Lee as the subject of his thesis partly because, he [Lee] was a working-class intellectual, and while it was not initially an exploration of socialism in New Zealand, his work did show that there was no "obvious historiography" of socialism in the country at the time. Working in the USA introduced Olssen to different ways of exploring history. He studied how that country had become less progressively labour-left but still had some strong unions and social classes. Olssen said he found that time both confusing and liberating, noting: "Where my simple-minded Marxist inheritance posed a simple binary - workers versus the bourgeoise - as as the key to modern history, here we had a scholarly tradition that treated this opposition as reductionist or just irrelevant." At Cornell in 1967 Olssen studied the 'new' social history through the lens of "economics, statistics, game theory, [and] sociology", and has credited this time as being influential in his development as a social historian [able to] "write the history of ordinary people rather than political elites, and analyse structure as well as events." Olssen also explained that as a researcher, he felt the most effective way to study the lives of ordinary people within the context of a larger social movement, was to examine the "engagement between ideas and ordinary lives" in local, networked places. On his return to New Zealand much of his research was an exploration of the development of social structures in New Zealand from the early nineteenth century until 1940, specifically examining how "the relationships between politics, society, ideas, culture, and economics affects the lives of individuals and their societies." This focus on social history that explored class and social relationships, was said by historian Jock Phillips to be an area pioneered by Olssen.

Towards a History of the European Family in New Zealand co-authored by Olssen in 1978, was seen by two New Zealand historians Bronwyn Labrum and Bronwyn Dalley as being influential in shifting the historiography of New Zealand toward more of a "social historical approach" effectively "introducing social history" into the country. In acknowledging that comment, Olssen explained that the article had resulted from him coming into contact with feminism because research by his co-author Andree Levesque into women's history had uncovered much that was unrecognised. He said it was timely to draw on work he had done in the U.S. to write about the impact of the family historically in New Zealand. In 1978, when Olssen wrote an essay in The Gendered Kiwi , one writer stated that it indicated a shift in position toward recognising the need for further research into the family as a primary site where gender is constructed. If masculinity and femininity are understood as relational constructs, then this allows for the family to be analysed as a system of gender relations rather than separate experiences of different sexes.

According to Tony Ballantyne and Brian Moloughney from the University of Otago, Olssen's work significantly shaped understandings of "New Zealand's political traditions, intellectual culture and social formations". His identification of class as an important category of analysis initiated the tradition of social history and his "methodological innovation...[impacted]...the historiographical terrain."

Relationships between Māori and colonists from Britain
In his study of Otago, a New Zealand province, Olssen explored the relationships between Māori and colonists from Britain that, in early nineteenth century, resulted in a culturally-respectful regional settlement with a provincial identity. From around 1840 Sealers and whalers from Australia were established in the area and while there are records of some rough, anti-social behaviour, both groups earned enough respect from local Māori to cooperate and build mutually beneficial relationships. Olssen suggested therefore that the occupation by settlers from Britain was relatively peaceful with intermarriage between whalers and sealers and the local iwi, Ngāi Tahu [resulting in]..."the beginning of Pākehā society." Ngāi Tahu later engaged with settlers during threats from a northern chief Te Rauparaha and an onset of measles and influenza in 1835. Financiers in Sydney with investments in the area supported providing military aid to Ngāi Tahu, some weapons were purchased, and the whalers provided support to Māori affected by the epidemic. Olssen's interpretation is that key local Māori chiefs had accepted Pākehā as adding protection to the tribe and saw the value of embracing Christianity. One chief, Tūhawaiki, is said to have come to terms with the 'new world', encouraging the development of skills that would be mutually beneficial to both Māori and Pākehā and result in the "peaceful integration of these two worlds on terms acceptable to Māori."

Beginnings of a post-industrial region
Within the same region, Olssen's research identified as significant the later organisation of labour in developing workers' agency during a time of change when the society moved away from the pre-industrial structure of England into urban industrialised towns, regions and a wider society. He analysed the years from the 1880s to the 1920s in New Zealand when the country was held up as a social laboratory based on egalitarian ideas and how workers created a distinctive class-based politics to establish and protect their equality. According to Olssen, at the time, Otago had distinctive historical and geographical features that influenced patterns nationally in New Zealand. One writer said that this approach taken by Olssen in the research enabled a "regional gaze" to counter the concept, held by some historians, that the nation state has primacy in consideration of the past, when actually regions have "distinct histories and these need to be grappled with." Olssen's research has often pivoted around interpreting the degree to which settlers were attached to the values of pre-industrial Britain and how this shaped expectations for their life in the 'new world' of a recently colonised New Zealand. The role of the New Zealand Company is identified as having a significant effect on this process, with Edward Gibbon Wakefield looking to [transplant] "the social order of pre-industrial England into the wilderness where everybody would live in planned towns, farming the surrounding land". The New Zealand Company gave approval for the plan to bring Scottish Presbyterians into Otago. But after a series of theological disagreements, this resulted in the formation of the Lay Association which actively recruited immigrants with carpentry, bricklaying and shoemaking and weaving skills and "farmers' sons, small shopkeepers and self-employed tradesmen."

Organisation of labour
By the 1880s industrial disputes across the country were creating a common identity for workers. Olssen wrote that Dunedin was becoming an industrial, urbanised community, and in line with what was happening elsewhere in New Zealand, both skilled and unskilled workers were forming unions and the town had a Trades and Labour Council which was active in advocating for improved working conditions. In 1887 Samuel Lister a settler from Scotland who was a printer and engraver, established the Otago Workman, a weekly newspaper, [which he said] "would fearlessly take up the cause of the industrial classes, and advocate the rights of labour as against the selfish greed, and tyranny of unscrupulous capital", leading Olssen to conclude that the paper "played a major role in shaping a sense of working-class identity...[and Lister]...helped shape the political platform and strategy of the fast-multiplying trade unions." On 28 October 1990, a large group of seaman lead workers from a range of trades across Dunedin in a demonstration of support for unions involved in the Maritime Strike of the same year. Although the strike was not successful, Olssen held that the expression of solidarity demonstrated "the speed with which an industrial working class [had] emerged", creating an event that would been impossible five years previously. The New Zealand 1890 election was seen by Olssen as important in consolidating the unionised working class as a potential political influence in Dunedin. One reviewer said this interpretation of the development of a working class by Olssen was significant because it situated him in later writings as a historian with the position that class has "continuing importance...in New Zealand's political development."

Developments after World War 1
The period following World War I, was described by Olssen as [one of] "uncertainty and nostalgic introspection" for Otago. The influence of the elite lessened, as did the Protestant moral code that was driving local government, and unions were less directly supportive of the churches. Olssen suggested that this was a crisis of faith heightened by the rise of Darwinian biology that challenged the biblical view of creation and developed intellectual credibility at the University of Otago where agnosticism and scientific methodology were valued. This resulted in a concept of a 'scientific morality' as evident in the work of Dr Fredrick Truby King, who amongst other things, promoted the belief that people could shape the environment but also modify and control it to develop highly capable people. King was said by Olssen to have democratised medicine by incorporating medical science into "the Protestant consensus about morality and family", enabling many young women to engage with medicine. The Plunket Society, established in 1907, was seen by Olssen as reflecting past traditions and science coming together, leading the country with the wide range of programmes and training for nurses it offered. Olssen noted that when the 1918 influenza pandemic hit the province, the city leaders in Dunedin were proactive in managing this and with the rise of welfare organisations such as the Red Cross, a community spirit once more emerged in the city with evidence that "old values of heroism, duty, honour and service" were still valued.

Establishment and the early years
Jock Phillips noted in Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand that during the 1970s, when historians in New Zealand began studying social history in the country by examining class and social relationships, Olssen "pioneered serious labour history...[drawing]...on a large database of information about Caversham in South Dunedin for important books analyzing work and social hierarchy." The streets comprising the Caversham Borough were chosen as the study area, because the adult population could be largely reconstructed from electoral rolls and the Census-reported population totals, and the borough contained "an approximate microcosm of the larger urban occupational and class structure." Olssen explained the background of the project was within a debate about the role of social class in New Zealand by and purpose was to systematically measure the extent of social and geographical mobility in Caversham borough. Olssen's interest in explaining the industrial and political mobilizations of the urban working class between 1880 and 1922 also shaped this project and gave it a comparative dimension, for he had studied similar topics while undertaking his PhD at Duke University. From 1975 until 1901, Olssen was Principal Investigator.

But the project was never adequately funded until 1994 and there were challenges involved in creating a statistical database of all adults who lived in the suburb. This made it difficult to ascertain if the occupational structure in Caversham was typical of New Zealand in general, and the extent to which the social–occupational structure in urban New Zealand was comparable to those in other capitalist-industrial societies. Nevertheless the position was taken that "local case studies are the only viable way of identifying occupational structure and mobility in New Zealand", and Criminologist Greg Newbold noted that this approach [allowed identification of] "work mobility, geographical movement and residential differentiation in South Dunedin, and to find out how typical this area was in comparison with the national structure."

Publications

 * The Skilled Workers: Journeymen and Masters in Caversham, 1880-1914 (1988). Co-authored by Olssen, this was the first systematic study of mobility in the New Zealand Journal of History. In the article, the "composition and character of the urban skilled workforce" in Caversham informed the investigation of the role played by skilled workers in the process of class formation and how this shaped later political developments in New Zealand.
 * The Power of the Shop Culture: The Labour Process in the New Zealand Railway Workshops 1890-1930 (1992). Written by Olssen and Jeremy Brecher, the article reflected their research into two of the major sources of employment: the building trades, which were dominated by small-scale firms and self-employed tradesmen; and the engineering trades where most men were employed in large workshops such as the Hillside Railway workshops. Olssen's work with Brecher on the Hillside Railway workshops challenged the idea that large-scale industry inevitably reduced skilled workers' agency and showed that the skilled workers of Hillside enjoyed and maintained almost complete control over the labour process, [and] "their skill...gave them a sense of identity and pride." The research demonstrated that in both, the culture of craft was central and fundamental. According to Olssen, one significant implication of this, especially in decentralized industries, was that many men, having served an apprenticeship and then worked as a journeyman, set up their own account and often became small-scale employers.
 * Building the New World: work, politics and society in Caversham, 1880s-1920s (1995). This significant publication was authored by Olssen following the project receiving considerable funding from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. This work assembled further background information about the project and began an interpretation of the data. Olssen explained that a specific aim of the project was to investigate how "work in the skilled trades, politics and society" were related and how the themes of the 'social laboratory'—equality, independence, security and opportunity— were achieved by working men and women in their workplaces. He also defined what "skilled' work was and showed that between 1902 and 1922 "skilled men dominated Caversham". One reviewer saw the book as representing a change in focus for Olssen from unskilled to skilled workers and "a shift in magnification from nation to suburb." In her review of the book Raewyn Dalziel of The University of Auckland acknowledged that Olssen's chapter on skilled working women used reliable sources that showed data for most women were excluded if they did not work for wages, and concluded: "as an exploration of the linkages between skilled work, politics and society it is a return to old debates and a masterly summation of much of [Olssen's] research and writing in labour and political history." In his review of the book, Len Richardson, a labour and sports historian at the University of Canterbury, suggested that Olssen's study was significant because it traced the process by which the women of Caversham's skilled community were enabled to "acquire a skilled training which they hoped would enable them to attain a level of independence in their lives."
 * Sites of Gender: Women, Men & Modernity in Southern Dunedin, 1890-1939 (2003). Olssen assembling a larger multidisciplinary team in the late 1990s to analyse women’s experience and the role of gender in structuring society, resulting in the publication of this book. Olssen, the team manager, made significant contributions to the book, in particular Working Gender, Gendering Work: Occupational Change and Continuity in South Dunedin, a substantial chapter on the gendering of work in which he took the position that the mobilisation of the workforce in the 1880s had many egalitarian aspects including the formation of some of the first women's unions, women became increasingly confident and independent and increasingly ignored nationality, religion and class in selecting a spouse, and were more likely to  own their own house on marrying and thus live apart from their parents.  A reviewer said a key theme of the book, borne out in the chapter by Olssen, was that during this "period of construction of new family forms, declining birth rates and enhanced expectations about the health and education of children, and Southern Dunedin men and women shared in all three".  Patricia Grimshaw of the University of Melbourne commended the editors of the book in [undertaking]..."the ambitious task of placing gender at the centre of an analysis of work in Caversham, Dunedin, as the impact of modernity became starkly apparent." In the same piece Grimshaw acknowledged that the book's success was the result of excellent collection of wide-ranging data, [and from]..."the writers' grounding in the theoretical framework of gender studies."
 * Class, Gender and the Vote (2005). This book was the result of a collaboration between some members of the team and a group of academics at the University of Canterbury headed by Professor Miles Fairburn. Olssen co-edited the book and contributed the chapter Marriage Patterns in Dunedin's Southern Suburbs, 1881-1938. The chapter continued to explore the decisions young women made around work and marriage, which Olssen said, were influenced by higher levels of education, and by 1900, more awareness of debates and movements in the wider world related to women's rights.  The chapter suggested that the data showing an increase in women marrying after their twenties reflected a "dramatic growth and occupational opportunities for young women in Dunedin's southern suburbs."
 * An Accidental Utopia? Social Mobility and the Foundations of an Egalitarian Society, 1880-1940 (2010). Olssen co-authored this as the fourth book published by the Caversham Project. It was noted in the Preface that the work marked a return to the project's  key objective: the identification of the extent of both work life and inter-generational occupational mobility; the relationship (if any) between levels of mobility and political behaviour; and mobility’s larger social significance.  The authors brought together the data from the Cavendish Project that showed how social structure and mobility were determined by marital mobility, how men and women chose spouses, occupational pathways followed by men, intergenerational mobility and the expansion of occupational opportunities.  Jim McAloon from Victoria University of Wellington agreed that the relationship between social mobility and class was a major sociological debate and acknowledged the authors' view that a case study such as the Caversham Project can show the interrelated nature of class, gender and race in developing a frame of reference which allows valid contributions to the discourse.  Sociologist Peter Davis described the book as ambitious in using "detailed historical and quantitative analysis of information" from the Caversham Project [to] "develop an argument about the social structure and urban expression of a new settler society." Writing in the Otago Daily Times Geoffrey Vine, a journalist and Presbyterian minister, said that while it was open to debate whether or not the book answered the question in its title, it was "saved from being a dry recitation of denominational percentages, performative rituals and discursive structures by Olssen's sweeping prose." Another reviewer noted that the data-based approach of the authors made a strong case that social class was important in New Zealand history.
 * Movement and Persistence: A Case Study of Southern Dunedin in Global Context (2011). This was a paper submitted by Olssen to Building Attachment in Families (2011), a funded project managed by the Centre for Research, Evaluation and Social Assessment (CRESA), with the goal of identifying "the mechanisms, processes and relations required to build and sustain community and family wellbeing, optimize attachment in changing communities and address problems arising out of transience and residential mobility". Olseen used data that confirmed high levels of fluidity and social mixing of the Caversham population, underpinning [within the suburb] "the emergence of an egalitarian society characterized by a deepening consensus about the importance of looking after those who, for whatever reason, could not always look after themselves...[contributing]...to a vibrant and dynamic society."
 * Working Lives c.1900 A Photographic Essay  was launched in August 2014 by Dave Cull a former mayor of Dunedin. The Otago Daily Times said Working Lives showed insight into the life of working class people in what has become recognized as the first industrial suburb in New Zealand, and The Otago Settlers News acknowledged that the photographs had been collected from a range of sources including  the Hocken Collections and the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington. Another reviewer said that the book [revealed] "a time when direct relationships between workers and employers, skill and what was crafted, were valued and primarily local." As the last publication arising from the Caversham Project, it has also been suggested "this is both a window into a past world and – often enough – a reminder that the past was as diverse as the present. Not always quaint and pretty, but not a wasteland either." When interviewed about Working Lives Olssen said that in the 1870s and 80s Dunedin was not only of national significance commercially and financially but was also the leading industrial centre in New Zealand and "the values and habits of life that evolved among the working men and women of the industrial areas in Dunedin came to permeate the city and the entire country." In Landfall magazine freelance writer, reviewer, artist, and musician James Dignan agreed with this position when he said that "for all its localized bias...[the book]...aims to illustrate the life of early industry in the colony overall." In the book, Olssen revisited the history of organized labour in Dunedin noting that with the formation of the first women's union, the general acceptance by middle-class people in the town for unions, a series of publications calling for radical reform and support for legislative changes such as the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act of 1894, workers in the town were able to support the development of an independent Labour Party to challenge the Seddon-led Lib-Lab government.  Olssen contended [that] "the Dunedin accommodation was now national", in a justification of his earlier claim that culture in Otago, and in particular Dunedin, was distinctive and significant for the wider New Zealand community from the 1880s.  In Working Lives Olssen challenged the view that the labour movement originated on the West Coast, and contended that the "masters and journeymen" in Dunedin had a key role in forming the Liberal-Labour coalition, and "skilled artisans and mechanics...laid the foundation or the unionization of the unskilled."

National history: social and political developments in New Zealand 1880-1920
The Introduction to The People and the Land Te Tangata me te Whenua: An Illustrated History of New Zealand, 1820–1920 (1990), co-authored by Olssen, took the position that the book depicted two histories in the country, one for Māori and the other for Pākehā. It stated that each author brought their own perspectives to explore "ordinary lives and activities as well as the major political episodes that touched every one of those lives in some way", and acknowledged that while there were shared activities between Māori and Pākehā, "coloniser and colonised acquired some contradictory perspectives of the past." The conclusion drawn was that historians needed to be aware that the widely held belief of New Zealand as a country of equality could blinker the historical reality of differences not being recognised or allowed for, resulting in European settlers assuming they could make laws for all.

Within this historical frame of reference, Olssen's contributions to the book focussed on the social, political and industrial interractions from 1890 until 1920, by when, he argued, "material well-being, a high degree of social justice and an open democratic society gave pride to most New Zealanders...[and the country]...had come of age." In his analysis of the dynamic and interractions leading to this, Olssen was clear that while there was a sense of national identity within the country by 1920, questions remained about the position of Māori within this society. His research showed that claims of some politicians that there was racial harmony and justice mostly reflected assimilation of Māori into what was still effectively a British colonial socio-political culture.

In another key publication The Red Feds: Revolutionary Industrial Unionism and the New Zealand Federation of Labour 1908-14 (1988) Olssen documented the rise of organised labour and showed how this played a key role during the changes of this period.

A social laboratory 1890-1906
Olssen's work on this period in New Zealand's history explored how the country recovered from an economic depression and political instability and moved toward becoming a society that was later to be seen as a 'social laboratory' as a result of innovative and experimental social and political legislation. Olssen wrote of how the Liberal government under John Ballance had struggled to the complex political demands from trade unions for industrial legislation to protect the rights of the workers and runholders expressing concerns about the security of their land. Ballance died in 1893 and his successor, Richard Seddon moved quickly to legislate on issues related to land, industrial disputes, and working conditions in factories, and established relationships with Māori around how they managed their land. Seddon's popularity and credibility as a social reformer was enhanced in 1898 when he ensured the passing of the Pensions Bill, said by Olssen to symbolise the "humanitarianism of Seddon's Liberals." Seddon did hold beliefs that some cultures were "genetic threats to the purity of New Zealand's British stock" and that New Zealand was "the guardian of the [British] empire's interest in the South Pacific", to the point where in the 1890s, according to Olssen "white New Zealanders saw themselves as the Britons of the south seas...[and]...looked back on sixty years of progress with pride and believed themselves superior to all other peoples."

By 1900, according to Olssen, New Zealand was "again prosperous and content" and he contended that this was a time when women were employed in an increasingly wide range of sectors, some churches promoted the equality of the sexes, girls were required to attend schools and women began to graduate as doctors and lawyers. The establishment in 1885 of a branch of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in Dunedin, which, later supported by Kate Sheppard began the campaign which eventually saw women to get right to vote, was also seen by Olssen as promoting a "positive image of marriage as an equal relationship", with a new sense of responsibility toward parenthood where children were "the central emotional return on the investment of marriage" and politicians were held accountable for maintaining high standards of their care. Olssen suggested these initiatives embodied [a] "vision of a re-ordered family as the basis for a decent society", and confirmed the widespread view that New Zealand was the "best place on earth." Olssen also noted the position of some feminists at the time that "marriage and motherhood" were professional roles for which all girls should be professionally trained and this was reflected in the work of The Plunket Society in offering advice on the care of babies. Otago University established a Department of Home Science in 1909 and began awarding degrees in the subject from 1912.

Olssen explored the development of a national New Zealand identity as the country gained an international profile and recognition for its successful social and political systems. William Pember Reeves had published The Long White Cloud Aotearoa in 1898 which portrayed the "legislative experiment" of New Zealand as romantic and adventurous, highlighting Māori as poetic and ferocious but integrated in a democracy built by the colony's founders and those who followed them. Notable visitors who came to view New Zealand's 'social laboratory' included Sydney and Beatrice Webb, Henry Demarest Lloyd and Albert Métin. Olssen acknowledged the role of an English socialist, William Ranstead in promoting New Zealand as a utopian society with no signs of poverty, the availability of well-paid work, and a culture of taking good care of its children. Olssen concluded, that immigrants were attracted to New Zealand with an expectation of "full employment, high wages, a healthy diet, and the chance of owning one's own house and some land."

Seddon had also travelled abroad and promoted New Zealand as a loyal outpost of the British Empire, willing to take a role in preserving the power of the empire in the Pacific. New Zealand troops took part in the Boer War, with the colony now, according to Olssen, united by "jingoism...[and]...in "paroxysms of imperial patriotism." In 1900, the country was given permission by the imperial government to annex the Cook Islands. When the Duke and Duchess of York visited New Zealand in 1901, Seddon shrouded the country's imperial ambitions as a "special destiny" and evidenced this by stressing the qualities of its soldiers, the  resilience of its citizens and what he saw as a "successful biracial society", presenting the country as one of "harmony, progress and achievement." Olssen's position on the legacy of Seddon was that his work located New Zealand internationally as a country of democratised opportunity. While not everybody agreed with Seddon's style, Olssen held that his domination of politics created a sense of identity and destiny for New Zealand.

Disruption and nation-building 1907-1920
Seddon died on 10 June 1906 and Olssen noted that, while his successor, Joseph Ward, was competent and optimistic, his government was confronted with issues and discontent that had been embryonic during the previous era. The farmers were noted as suspecting the Liberal Party of being too influenced by unions, and in 1901 formed their own union to challenge land laws and demand that all Crown land be freehold. There was also disquiet amongst some employers, who under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act of 1894, had strict requirements to recognise any union of at least seven employed workers, but took strong exception to being cited and legally bound as a party to a dispute. In response, they formed the Employers' Federation in 1902. Olssen acknowledged there was rising discontent within some unions about the Arbitration Court not managing its workload, and by 1907, the Trades and Labour Council had stated that the Arbitration Act had never been established in the interests of workers, while employers claimed, enterprise was being stifled due to the "rigid wage structure." Olssen saw this as both parties [fighting] "to escape the precedents established in the 1890s. In 1908, a more radicalised and confident union organised the The Blackball miners strike which resulted in most of the demands of the workers being met, raising the ire of the Farmers' Union and the Employers' Federation who challenged the government to enforce the Arbitration Act or abolish it. The Liberals won another election victory in 1908, but Olssen noted that Ward did not have control of a new group of independents in the party and struggled to put together a team that could manage an increasing sense of unease in most sectors of society. The radical approach by the Federation of Labour in advocating class war, resulted in a "defensive alliance" between farmers and employers; merchants and manufacturers resented what Olssen called [the government's] "feeble response to union militancy"; and attempts to legislate a form of compulsory military did not assuage fears of the rising threat of war.

Olssen identified that there were high expectations within a booming economy. Working people were said to have a "new sense of worth and dignity", seeing organised unionism as the way to meet their demands for enough pay to support their families. Workers in white-collar and semi-professional occupations had smaller families and along with women in general, made reasonable gains in pay. The country was ready for a change and according to Olssen, the 1911 election, which needed a second ballot due to a tie in the first vote, was pivotal. He explained how it highlighted the political uncertainty and after unsuccessful attempts by Liberals to create coalitions leading to a vote of no confidence, resulted in a Reform government in 1912 led by William Massey. Olssen said Massey committed to retaining the achievements of the previous government, proclaiming himself as a true liberal having campaigned in support of freehold land, dealing with corruption in the bureaucracy, promising meritocracy and criticizing the Liberal party's soft position on militant labour.

Massey's government was immediately confronted with industrial unrest. They were accused of mismanaging the Waihi miners' strike of 2013, allowing violence between police and workers to happen. While the miners were defeated, Olssen held that workers had a "new sense of their power and importance." Massey responded with legislation that aimed at limiting the power of unions and when further strikes broke out on the Wellington wharf, called in volunteers to help keep law and order. The resultant violent riots involved weapons on all sides, with the Sydney Morning Herald noted by Olssen as reporting it to be "a sort of modified civil war between town and country." Massey eventually got control of the situation, demonstrating the power of the special forces to maintain order. Olssen suggested that the failed strikes had not weakened the numerical strength of the unions, and while arbitration was still successful in retaining wages and improved working conditions, the industrial unrest had "sharpened class tensions in the cities and tensions between urban and rural New Zealand."

Olssen's research on New Zealand's response to World War I highlighted the challenges the country faced in meeting its obligation to Britain while retaining political stability, economic security and ongoing development of a progressive social system. Massey agreed to send an expeditionary force and responded to a request to seize German Samoa. Many New Zealanders set up patriotic committees and voluntary organisations to support the dependents of soldiers. Widespread coverage of the war in the newspapers, reflected concerns about the high casualty rate and Olssen documented examples of vigilante groups harrassing German people and businesses in the country. Within this environment, marking what Olssen called "the high point of jingoism and xenophobia...[and]...this climate of intense patriotism and political uncertainty", there was a call to put political differences aside and form a national government. The merge of the Liberals and Reform was confirmed in August 2015.

As the war progressed and received more publicity in New Zealand, Olssen wrote it was a difficult time that nevertheless presented opportunities for the country. He identified gains made by women from increased opportunities during the war as being in occupations such as clerking, teaching, medical profession and the public services with many women running family businesses and farms while their men were overseas. Women became more visible in universities and politics with some being elected to local bodies and hospital boards, and there was an increased awareness amongst young women doctors of problems such as illegal abortions and venereal diseases about which men needed to be educated. The government did make it a legal obligation for any person with a venereal disease to get treatment and by 1917, soldiers were regularly checked and supplied with condoms before going on leave. Olssen saw this as an example of New Zealand realising the importance of the nation being morally and physically healthy. Truby King wrote a pamphlet showing how the health of the nation and the empire, depended on sound teeth and when it was shown that 58% of soldiers had to be rejected from conscription due to bad teeth, King had credibility in linking Plunket to "the future of New Zealand and the empire." Olssen claimed that this led key medical people toward considering a national health service run by the state, with a widening acceptance of the importance of children's health, and more awareness by dentists of their responsibilities in this area.

Olssen's work on how New Zealand managed the issue of conscription crystalized key aspects of the country's culture. Initially recruitment for the war was left to local communities responding to provincial quotas suggested by the army, but voluntary enlistment was not an efficient system and the government introduced the National Registration Act in September 1915 which recorded the numbers of potential soldiers but also allowed men to register their preference to enlist or not. A high percentage said they would not offer any support to the war effort, reflecting resistance already in the community from the Passive Resisters' Union, churches such as the Quakers and Jehovah Witnesses. The political left was divided but unions held anti-conscription conferences and the Labour party expressed some opposition. Olssen recorded that the government had tried to make voluntary recruitment work with a national debate focused on equity arriving at a consensus that all eligible single men should go to war, with some reasonable exceptions. The first ballot was held in November 2016, but by 2017 had run into problems with the exemption criteria causing confusion about what constituted 'essential work' that could entitle men to appeal being conscripted. The anomaly of not initially conscripting Māori, was seen by Olssen as being problematic. Some of the Māori members of parliament, including Māui Pōmare supported conscription because it would demonstrate full citizenship of Māori, while it was opposed by tribes who remained resentful of land confiscations by the government after the New Zealand Wars, and others who did not wish for any further wars. The government's later response to include Māori but not to enforce it legally, caused confusion and resentment. Rua Kenana who opposed conscription, was arrested and found 'morally guilty' by the jury on one charge but the judge imposed a severe penalty, claiming that Kenana had a long history of defying the law and that "he belonged to a race 'still in tutelage'". Kenana served nine months in prison and the cost of the case had taken its toll economically on his community at Maungapohatu. Olssen wrote that Pākehā were divided, but the backlash said to have "inflamed Pākehā prejudice in the country districts" and resulted in many supporting the government and the police who later enforced conscription of members of the Waikato tribe that had also protested.

After the war racist xenophobia manifested as attacks on Asian immigrants, and in 1920, the government passed the Immigration Restriction Amendment Act. People who were not of British or Irish birth and parentage had to apply in writing for a permit to enter and acceptance of their suitability was at the discretion of the minister of customs, giving government power to waive the permit requirement for particular nationalities. One researcher, cited by Olssen, concluded: "It does not in fact seem possible to avoid the conclusion that by 1920, and at the will of both government and people, there had been established what was, if not literally a 'white New Zealand' policy, at least one which was carefully designed effectively to prevent the settlement of Asians...[who]...were very widely regarded as inferior beings, and the prospect of miscegenation viewed with irrational horror. The Immigration Restriction Amendment Act ...brought to a successful end the long search for an instrument of policy which would both keep New Zealand white and be acceptable to the imperial government."

The implications of how New Zealanders perceived themselves and their country as part of the British empire was a key focus of Olssen's research into the legacy of the war for the country. Earlier politicians such as Seddon had promoted New Zealand as an important outpost of the British empire in the Pacific region and this approach was continued by Massey who worked closely with the Imperial War Cabinet and served on a key committee of the Imperial Conference. Olssen noted that Massey understood New Zealand's interests as "strategic, economic, social, and political - in imperial terms", and in this forum vigorously pursued them. In 1917, the Imperial Conference acknowledged that the dominions had equal status to Great Britain [and were] "entitled to be consulted about imperial foreign policy." Massey wanted Britain and the empire to retain control of Germany's Pacific colonies, and in particular for New Zealand to have Samoa. This was granted at the peace talks. On his return to New Zealand Massey was said to downplay the significance of New Zealand's role in these talks and Olssen's position was that this reflected a wariness on Massey's part that he would be seen as promoting independence which might weaken the imperial bonds. Massey reassured parliament that he had spoken as "the representative of a self-governing nation within the empire." Olssen maintained that the empire was seen as central to the survival of New Zealand and there was a feeling by the end of the war that the soldiers had demonstrated to the world "that the country had produced a strong and vigorous race", confirming the belief in the success of the country as a 'social laboratory'.

As a frame of reference for the emergence of New Zealand's nationhood following the war, Olssen drew on the work of William Morrell who, while a school student had been passionately interested in the battles and exploits of the soldiers, and in 1935 wrote the first history of the country as a nation. Olssen noted Morrell had acknowledged a range of personalities and achievements that had shaped the belief New Zealand was 'God's Own Country', but it was war, and particularly the exploits at Gallipoli, which confirmed the country's nationality and self-belief that "migration had been vindicated", they were still of worthy British stock and had not disgraced the empire. According to Olssen, "as the troops grew in confidence their little army became a mirror of the society at home."

Massey was returned to government in 1919, reflecting what Olssen saw as a perception held that he had managed industrial and economic issues well, retained strong links with the empire, gained influence and resources in the Pacific and was seen by most as "the embodiment of order at a time when revolution and anarchy threated in foreign parts." The country was prosperous and Olssen concluded that "material wellbeing, a high degree of social justice, and an open democratic society" was a source of pride to New Zealanders in how they saw themselves and their country. Some issues of identity remained unresolved and "the myth of a harmonious bi-racial society" was said by Olssen to have mostly reflected a widely held belief that Māori had been successfully assimilated. Olssen concluded that, while by 1920 New Zealand may have become an internationally recognised nation, questions remained about the justification for its existence. Pākehā saw themselves as the race best able to use the land and develop communities, but their total belief they had "rescued the Māori from savagery and extinction and conferred on them the blessings of law, christianity and British citizenship" led Olssen to question [whether] "Māori acquiescence in a Pākehā dominion [was] essential for Pākehā self-esteem."

Politics and organised labour
In the 1880s New Zealand had a depression resulting in a period of economic downturn that led to widespread unemployment and poverty and Olssen wrote that at this time, there was an increase in union membership in the country led by the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (ASRS) which had originated in the United Kingdom, and the Federated Seamen's Union. By 1889 representatives of the maritime unions, as well as coal miners, had joined together to form the Maritime Council, the first national labour organisation in New Zealand. The many victories initially won by the Council in key industries, also encouraged other workers to form and join unions.

Olssen position was that organised labour played a major role in the 1890 election and with the support of elected union members and sympathetic radical Liberals, John Ballance was able to form a government. After the death of Ballance in 1893, a populist politician Richard Seddon emerged as Premier and following his decisive victory, oversaw the enactment of the 'Lib-Lab' coalition’s legislative programme in 1894 including the passing of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1894.That measure enabled workers to form and register unions with the court, and legally obliged employers to both recognise and negotiate with them. Olssen has written in Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, that this was effectively an "alliance between the unions and the government". While most unionised workers still accepted the Arbitration Court, and remained loyal to the liberals, there was a growing awareness of the need for some political organising that would make the government more responsive to workers' needs. In 1905 the Trades and Labour Councils, established an Independent Labour Party which challenged the Liberals and there was also an influx of left-wing socialist unionists from Australia, who according to Olssen, "preached class war, direct action [and] industrial unionism...and were scornful of politics". In his comprehensive study of revolutionary industrial unionism between 1908 and 1914, Olssen held that this reflected industrial workers becoming aware of the possibility of achieving a "socialist millennium...[through]... "mass action." Olssen maintained that the 1908 Blackball miners' strike validated this because it proved that the strike could achieve more in a few weeks than the Court had delivered in years. The  strike’s success also made its leaders, notably Patrick Hickey and Paddy Webb national figures with visions "class solidarity and industrial unionism". Olssen's view was that this reflected a new mood among miners shaped by an aggressive form of socialism, seen by another revolutionary socialist, H.M. Fitzgerald as being necessary to develop solidarity and a preparedness of unions to strike.

Early in 1908 the New Zealand Federation of Miners was established, with Hickey as secretary and Semple as president. The new Federation [affirmed] support for class struggle and challenged the existing industrial arbitration legislation. The Federation had some success in opposing the response of employers to the Workers' Compensation Act which could have resulted in miners being dismissed for having a condition brought on by the work environment, but in 1909 its name was changed to the New Zealand Federation of Labour, said by Olssen to reflect the miners’ desire to obtain leadership roles within the New Zealand labour movement.

Between 1908 and 1912 the Federation of Labour's success in gaining wage increases for some workers saw it rapidly grow in size and influence but it was even more militant international organisation, the Industrial Workers of the World that convinced Waihi miners to strike in 1912. Following weeks of confrontation involving the police and strike-breakers hostile to the Red Feds and after one miner was killed, the strike ended. Across the country, most unions denounced the role of the government in allowing this to happen and Olssen suggested that the leaders of the Red Federation now realised the fundamental importance of political action. There was some consolidation of organised labour in 1913 when a conference established the United Federation of Labour (UFL). This was essentially a coalition between moderate and militant unions, but Olssen noted in Te Ara that some of the activists, with an agenda of creating a socialist republic, believed this new federation should call a general strike. A series of strikes broke out across the country late in 1913 involving watersiders, miners, seamen, drivers and builders’ labourers. The government intervened by recruiting special constables, mostly Territorials from Wellington’s rural districts and dairy farmers from the Waikato, and they forced open the wharves in Auckland and Wellington. Because of this action by the new conservative Reform  government, led by Bill Massey and a lack of nationwide support, the strike was lost and many militants left the country. In 1919 the UFL was replaced by the Zealand Alliance of Labour which continued to advocate the overthrow of capitalism in New Zealand through direct industrial action.

It has been said the demonstration by the State of its power to crush industrial action convinced some unionists to become involved politically and use the electoral system to bring about change. Several of the strike leaders, including Semple, Peter Fraser and Michael Joseph Savage were later to be ministers in the first Labour Government of New Zealand in 1935. Olssen's position was that the Red Feds had been instrumental in strengthening organised labour as a political force "by shifting the terms of the debate within the unions to the left and playing a decisive role in organising the unskilled...[moving]...working-class politics and organization on to a new axis."

In July 2016 representatives of political organisations and unions met in Wellington and established the New Zealand Labour Party. Workers were said at the time to have been divided, with significant ideological differences between moderates and militants hindering attempts to "create an independent labour alternative to the Liberal party." Olssen challenged this belief that the origins of the Labour Party were largely determined by reconciliation of factions, and contended that it was more about unskilled workers becoming realistic and aware of the need to to take political action. In a journal article, he concluded that "the ideological debates of the period were more symptoms, than causes, of the rise of organized labour." He further contested the view that the formation of the Labour Party was largely ideological and political, and held it was more about social changes - one of which was unionisation - without which the Party would never have been formed.

The Labour Party won three by-elections in 1918, and in the 1919 general election, gained eight seats and were the top party in the four main cities in New Zealand. Olssen concluded: "The significance of the war years lay not in factional reconciliation so much as in the decision of the fast-growing legions of unskilled in Auckland and (to a lesser extent) Wellington to support a socialist Labour Party."

Political career of John A. Lee
Much of the story about the development of the policies of the New Zealand Labour Party as it became a significant political force between 1920-1940, is captured by Olssen's research into the lived experiences of John A. Lee.

Early years and influences
In his 1977 biography, Olssen recorded that, born in 1801 into a poor family, Lee had a troubled early life, living in the world of the swagger, and spending time in prison. He came into contact with literature that developed his awareness of theories to explain the relationship between social class and politics and around the age of seventeen, was said to have read Upton Sinclair's expose of the sufferings of working class in the United States in his controversial book The Jungle. Olssen suggested that while Lee did not immediately associate it with socialism, the book was significant in developing his understanding of alienation and how this related to his troubled life. The socialism that Lee adopted at this time encapsulated a vision of a world where people were fed and housed, offering a promise that "society would be as the world of the swaggers, a world of camaraderie and equality." He was influenced by speakers, such as Harry Holland, Mickey Savage, Bob Semple and Pat Hickey preaching revolutionary socialism on the streets of Auckland and subscribed to the Maoriland Worker, read a wide range of literature and developed debating skills. According to Olssen, Lee became committed to "evolutionary as distinct from revolutionary socialism" but with some emotional awareness of many radical ideas such as anarchism, Fabianism and 'left' socialism.

War experiences
Lee enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force NZEF in March 1916 and served overseas during World War I. He met others interested in socialism and began writing columns from the front for Chronicles of the NZEF, a magazine published twice a month in London providing reports from the NZEF and edited by Clutha Mackenzie. He was injured, however, and after having his arm amputated, in 1918-1919 spent time convalescing in England where he continued to read literature about socialism, including works by J.A. Hobson. Lee returned to New Zealand in July 1919 and became involved in the New Zealand Returned Solders' Association (RSA). Lee strongly supported the organisation in lobbying the local city council in Auckland to employ and support veterans and the disabled, and Olssen noted that [Lee's work with the RSA]..."especially his intimacy with the disabled, brought him into close touch with some of most acute problems in New Zealand society such as poverty, unemployment, the housing shortage, inadequate medical attention and the feelings of frustration, bitterness and anger that such conditions bred."

Early years in the Labour Party
Lee joined the Labour Party and by 1920 was president of the Auckland Labour Representative Committee and a member of the party's national executive. He stood for Labour in a by-election in 1921, losing narrowly to Clutha MacKenzie. Olssen claimed that Lee "emerged with enhanced mana" from the campaign after strong speeches on key aspects of Labour's policies in the areas of education, the establishment of a state shipping service, management of speculation around land purchases and the establishment of public works. He was said to have focused on reaching both skilled and unskilled workers and their wives, campaigning for a nationalised medical service offering free attention, stronger national systems to support unemployed and provide sickness insurance, extension of entitlement to pensions and endorsement of "equality between the sexes." Lee's arguments were all seen by Olssen as supporting the main position of the Labour Party: "that the cake should be divided more equitably and democracy perfected."

Parliamentary experience in opposition
In the 1922 general election, Lee won a seat in parliament and continued to speak on equity issues in education, once again in support of Labour's policy that equality of opportunity was key for the health and education of the young to build economic growth. Elected for three more terms in the Labour opposition government between 1922 and 1930, Lee was noted by Olssen as having a high profile in debates about developing economic policies to deal with the worsening depression. From 1926 Lee began developing the position that to deal with the depression and unemployment, it would be necessary to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor. The issues were insufficient resources amongst the middle classes and the developing awareness that the main cause of the depression in New Zealand was not local productivity, but low returns for exports. According to Olssen, the country was "less a mass-production industrial society than an economic colony...[that]... depended heavily on importing capital and manufacturing goods and exporting primary produce." Theorists at the time believed that socialism could only be implemented after the inevitable downfall of a fully-realised capitalist system. Olssen showed how Lee challenged this and began developing a more "realistic set of socialist objectives and a strategy for realizing them within a democratic community", based on the premise that the collapse of capitalism was not inevitable and needed to be "engineered", and the implementation of socialism, "planned." By 1930 Lee was strongly propounding the theory of economic insulation "through control of finance and credit...[to protect]... New Zealand from international capitalism and ensuring that gains in welfare could not be destroyed by falling export prices." Olssen held it was likely Lee understood that his position moved the focus of socialism away from the alienation of the working class, maintaining his view that insulation and self-sufficiency were important factors if socialism was to be implemented into New Zealand.

Influence while out of parliament
Between 1931 and 1935, while not in parliament, Lee still retained some influence in the Labour Party, clarifying the stance that, while capitalism had created more productivity, the distribution to increase the purchasing power of working people remained a key issue. Olssen noted that Lee had identified a rising opposition to the Coalition government's policy that pursued a balanced budget without considering the need for a higher standard of living. He began organising public meetings, proclaiming that this was a time to oppose the policies of the current government, suggesting violence might happen if constitutional changes did not bring about justice for working people. When there was a violent uprising in Auckland, Lee became actively involved in an incident that involved police intervention. In a later analysis Lee was said to have "urged restraint...[visiting]...a local camp of unemployed to urge they destroy their weapons". According to Olssen, Lee did use language that was inflammatory at this time, but did not condone the threats of violence, and as things settled, emerged from the crisis with his "mana enhanced."

During this period, Lee promoted his view that having a strong national identity was necessary for insulation to be economically effective. He challenged the support shown by some Labour members, including [Walter Nash], the party's spokesperson on finance, for the belief that there was a special relationship with Britain as 'home'. He said this was an "insult to New Zealand" and did not reflect the fact that workers were making good progress in spite of some being driven out of Britain and "had escaped the slums to build better conditions...[such as]...the eight-hour day." Lee also disagreed with Nash about his proposal to use internal loans to address economic issues and his views on insulation and external credit did become Party policy, a situation, suggested by Olssen as the cause of later dissension. When Sid Holland, the leader of the Labour Party died in 1933, Lee did not support Savage for the position. Olssen maintained that this, on top of disagreements the two had about other issues, was something Savage never forgave Lee for.

Publications
In his work, Olssen recorded that by 1933, as the effects of the Great Depression upon working people became a reality, Lee wrote two books that promoted "social realism [as a] catalyst for change...to shock people into a recognition that [the economic system] had failed to deliver human decency and welfare." In Children of the Poor (1934), Olssen wrote that Lee "savagely depicted the consequences of poverty for a young child", with this analysis continued in The Hunted (1936). The books received mixed public reception. Negative responses were said by Joan Stevens to reflect a fear of radicalism because of their "frankness and exposure of social need", while Olssen noted that although Children of the Poor was initially published anonymously, following "excellent reviews and widespread interest...reprints bore the author's name. Olssen's concluded that Lee's intention in writing the book was to show that the environment could be altered to improve social structures based on his belief in the "power of ideas" to create a more "compassionate and open society...[where]...old traditions had to be destroyed and new faiths fostered."

Member of the Labour Government 1935-1940
When Labour was elected as the New Zealand government in 1935, Lee gained a position of responsibility for housing and was widely considered to have been the driving force in establishing a programme of state-house construction. At the same time, he became impatient with the government's tardiness in implementing the party's economic policies and led a left-wing faction that challenged ministers over several issues. As the 1938 election loomed, Olssen noted that Lee had a high profile in promoting more direct government control of the financial system and putting socialism as the only answer to the economic issues. While the leadership of the party was said to have been "discomforted" by Lee's actions, "Labour increased its majority and Lee won the largest majority in New Zealand's history." In March 1940, after several confrontations between Lee and the senior members of the government, he was expelled from the Party, with what Olssen suggested was mixed support from Party branches and unions who decided to remain with the status quo and not cause friction within the party. He established the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) that had some support but by 1942 it had disbanded and been renamed by Lee as the Democratic Solider Labour Party (DSLP) under which he ran unsuccessfully in the 1943 election. Olssen contended that the expulsion "marked a key battle in the triumph of authority over democracy, the central executive over the branches and of an alliance of Cabinet and certain union leaders over the Labour movement...[and arguably]...the expulsion, taken in itself and as a symbol was the central event in the Labour Party's first major crisis of identity."

Demographics
Olssen was on the Steering Panel for Our Futures Te Pae Tāwhiti The 2013 census and New Zealand's changing population (2014) a paper published by the Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand to reflect on "the future implications of certain trends...[shown in the data]...to facilitate informed discussion of the state and prospects of New Zealand society...[to]... promote public understanding by providing a basis for a more informed approach to both policy debate and political discussion. Following the release of the paper, Olssen said in the Otago Daily Times that the data from the 2013 Census showed an imbalance in the country with Auckland growing at a much faster rate than some other regions, particularly those in rural areas. He concluded that not only was this contributing toward feelings of resentment, but also meant that ratepayers in areas with less growth could struggle to financially maintain infrastructure, including that required to ensure satisfactory levels of service "for an ageing and possibly dwindling population". In a follow-up document, the Health sub report (2015), Olssen discussed demographic trends relating to mortality, morbidity, and fertility in New Zealand, evaluated health services and explored the determinants of health.

Further journal articles
Mr Wakefield and New Zealand as an Experiment in Post-Enlightenment Experimental Practice (1997)  Early in this piece, Olssen acknowledged that key New Zealand historians such as Keith Sinclair had some justification for putting the activities of the New Zealand Company under scrutiny, but questioned the validity of the revisionists in the 1940s and 1950s in taking an overly-detailed analytical and judgmental approach to the Wakefield settlements that may have overlooked a larger vision held by Wakefield that "systemic colonization, was designed to establish a new civilization and was predicated on a novel belief that this was practical." For the rest of the article, Olssen explored what he saw as an "assumption...[by Wakefield]...that social and political experiments could be conducted successfully."

Olssen identified the critical ideas of the post-Enlightenment society and how these influenced Wakefield in his plan for the systematic colonization of New Zealand. As a new society, the colony fitted with a narrative based on the idea that by using reason, humans could understand the laws of natural and social history and thus reduce pain and suffering through planned social action. The article suggested that Wakefield's work in New Zealand, was an attempt to create a society based on the best of British civilization, in effect "to create a civilized society in a new land, a civilized society predicated upon the capacity of Britons to cooperate and to govern themselves."

Wakefield's theory of systematic colonization was based on the legacy of the Enlightenment and the ideas of Adam Smith and David Ricardo. It was noted that by 1835, Wakefield had concluded that new ways of organising labour in response to "superabundance" of capital, allowed for the civilizing elements of leisure and knowledge, while not losing sight of the importance of virgin land in creating wealth. Olssen explored the development of Wakefield's views of civilization being shaped by his understanding of a political economy, but with almost a "[[Postmodernism
 * post-modern]] approach, that held "all knowledge about the economy is tentative and provisional." Olssen suggested that this demonstrated originality of thought which was later evident in his analysis of poverty in England and a strong wish for this not to be reproduced in the colonies. His scheme to enable Britain's surplus population to leave for countries in which land was more abundant, was seen by Olssen as correct because it could create a society where working people obtained land and gained agency in the creation of a civilised society.

Olssen suggested in the article that an important legacy of what he termed the "Wakefieldian Enlightenment", was the vibrant civic culture centred on voluntary societies that the colonists established, including "horticultural societies, libraries and mechanics institutes, orchestras, schools, and churches." Wakefield's grandmother was said to have been a strong proponent of charities, and the "New Zealand Society itself...[was]...an example of such a voluntarist institution." Olssen contended that if "voluntarism institutionalized co-operation...[and]...best expressed the aspirations of the colonists...Wakefield and those he inspired had a deeper and more enduring influence than previously suspected.

The paper further traced Wakefield's attitudes and actions regarding the recognition and treatment of Māori as tangata whenua of New Zealand. Olssen noted that a key idea of post-Enlightenment, the "conception of a universal human nature", was problematic because it was not equipped to understand or accept cultural differences. Olssen held that, initially, Wakefield, with an "innocent optimism worthy of the Enlightenment", believed Māori could be full members of a "small, cohesive, and conservative society on liberal-democratic principles, a society where wealth would not be adored, the poor not oppressed." While Wakefield did become more cynical about the realities of this, Olssen maintained that, in a letter to Gladstone in 1951, his analysis of what the settlers and the British needed to do to bring about peace and racial integration, showed a rationality and belief in the possibility of building a just society that reflected his vision and willingness to take an experimental approach.

Olssen suggested that some of Wakefield's critics overlooked the big picture of what he achieved and his impact on New Zealand's history. Elements of this big picture included the appeal of his vision that New Zealand would be a successful civilized colony, distinctive from Australia or the United States; incorporating the values of the Enlightenment into institutions as part of a democratic society; and that a model colony was possible because humans could systematically apply theories based on sociology and history. The article concluded: "[Wakefield's] experimental turn of mind, in short, helped to construct post-1840 New Zealand as an on-going experiment. Is it entirely coincidental that [New Zealanders] feel most happy when engaged on experiments which enhance [their] claim to be a model for humanity?"

'Where to From Here? Reflections on the Twentieth-Century Historiography of Nineteenth-Century New Zealand (1992) ' Olssen began this study with an exploration of two paradigms that he contended underpinned assumptions held by professionally trained New Zealand historians in the early 1920s. The first said that the country was a successful civilization, based on the special relationship with England that created the "more English than the English" myth. Olssen noted the debates about how Māori history was approached at this time and suggested that this Eurocentric approach was likely to have been based on the same belief held by the colonists, [that] "the arrival of organised settlement confronted the Māori with a choice between savagery and civilisation." The second paradigm, a recognition of the ideas of William Pember Reeves, challenged historians to a greater focus on the importance of Māori, the wars of the 1860s and the gold rushes in shaping an identity for New Zealand. According to Olssen, this could be seen as emancipation from the Old World of England, while still retaining a belief that by being a "democratic and adventurous...harmonious bi-racial country", the colony reflected a perfection of the traditions of Britain. Olssen suggested some historians managed to align the two paradigms by conceptualzing the emergence of New Zealand's nationality as a successful evolutionary process, with some [stressing] "the importance of British heritage, sometimes invoked by metaphors of racial character, others [placing] more emphasis on the environment and the process of natural selection."

In the 1950s, historians such as Keith Sinclair challenged the importance of being so closely tied to Britain and critically assessed the role of settler greed as a cause of the New Zealand wars, questioned the true value of the work done by Wakefield and the New Zealand Company and moved to a view that the country's nationhood should be considered within a Pacific context and more aware of problems, particularly in the area of race relations. Olssen concluded that the belief, "a nation could be understood in terms of its own development" became the "new orthodoxy" of historical research, with the problem that there was no recognition of cities and provinces offering distinctly different histories. With historians believing research should now focus of specific developments in New Zealand, there was exploration of the role of the Liberals during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This was seen by Olssen as an attempt to validate the influence of the Liberals on New Zealand becoming legislatively innovative in establishing a strong democracy, and he noted that in late 1950s commentators were endorsing that New Zealand's "history and identity was to be found in [its] democratic ways and legislative pioneering", confirmed by the rise of a Labour Party in the 1930s that developed the welfare state and moved on equality for Māori. By the 1970s there had been a shift from the notion the Liberals were true upholders of humanity and enlightenment and historians began considering the role of social classes in enabling occupational and employment mobility and to what extent they were an indicator of a healthy relationship between social and political history. Olssen's position was that while this did indicate an important discussion about society and politics, there was still no recognition of regional and local histories. At this point, Olssen was able to locate his own techniques and theoretical approaches during his work as a historian during the Caversham project. Historian Giselle Byrnes, noted in the New Oxford Dictionary (2009) that in the paper Olssen made "a strong case for more local studies to show variance within generalised histories...[pointing to]...various gaps and omissions in New Zealand's history, especially the topics of sport migration and health history, which generally fall under the rubric of 'social history'."

Olssen concluded there was now a need for a new intellectual history that explained the origins and successes of New Zealand as a colony and the social realities of how "Māori and Pākehā, men, women and children could illuminate the way in which both Māori and settlers constructed societies."

Truby King and the Plunket Society: An Analysis of a Prescriptive Ideology (1981)  The shift in research techniques to a focus on ordinary people's lives and values provided Olssen with the opportunity to reassess the contribution of Truby King to New Zealand history and explore his work and beliefs within the context of the time. In this article, the point is made that by 1900 New Zealand had been transformed by urbanization and industrialism, resulting in smaller communities becoming part of one social system. Olssen positioned King as offering a "diagnosis and prescription" to mitigate the threat this transformation posed to the social order.

King was seen as being an active agent in the modernization of the country, with values acquired from an upbringing in a supportive middle-class family and his experience at the Edinburgh Medical School, where he was influenced by the evolutionary theories of Herbert Spencer to develop the concept of a home with a strong mother capable of applying scientific principles to the raising of children. Olssen identified this as part of a bigger belief held by King, that people could control and modify their environment by raising standards of health. For this to succeed children needed to be "well nourished, vigorous and healthy...[by exercising]...control and discipline." This control of the brain was key to developing character and depended on sound health. King's controversial advocation of specific education for girls to be domesticated mothers, and boys for "mental and marital pursuits", was said by Olssen to have "made sense in terms of the conventional wisdom of mid-nineteenth century medical science." Olssen contended that King's views gained credibility and influence because they appealed to wealthier members of society who were uneasy about the changing role of women in the workplace moving them away from motherhood. This upper-middle class was also loyal to the British monarchy and concerned about the capacity of boys to undertake military service if necessary to defend the colony as part of the Empire. Olssen's suggested, therefore, that King's success was due to [his presentation of] "the imperial claims of medical science as a defence of traditional upper-middle class values."

The Plunket Society, established by King and his wife in 1907 initially concentrated on child health and because it achieved notable success in the reduction of infant mortality, and as a result of what Olssen noted to be "superb propaganda and organisation", there was considerable support for their work. King was encouraged by the Government to spread his ideology, being later appointed as the first Director of Child Welfare. By 1920 the Plunket Society began to widen its approach to health by applying King's theory that character is developed as a result of "routine, regular, all-round treatment" of infants and Olssen proposed that this concept and practice had not been analysed, because at the time, "it was seen as natural, part of a divinely ordained, an archetype of human nature." These routines were a prescription that children should be trained and not spoilt or indulged, and the responsibility for this still rested with the mother. King's goal was to develop a character free of "vice" so young people would not become adolescents and adults "devoid of moral self-control...[and fill]...the slums, prisons and charitable organisations".

King demanded censorship of movies in response to what he perceived as a threat to his theory that young people needed to control their sexuality, and Olssen put forward that this assumed almost as much importance as concerns about infant mortality. As with other theories and practices of King and the Society, Olssen maintained this was plausible at the time because any lack of control could have "disturbed the tidiness of a maturing social order and widespread faith in science, reason and order". Biological differences were used to justify gender roles, with boys being trained for employment and girls for motherhood, and the claim by the Society that this would create "stability and order", was widely accepted by the urban middle-classes. Olssen's position was that King and the Society were respected because they were applying "authoritative advice on child rearing...[and playing]...a valuable educational role in de-mystifying medicine." After it is further noted in the paper that the work of the Society was designed to produce citizens with the character to advance in their employment, and home maintenance was becoming regarded as a profession "of vital social importance", Olssen put the case that "King's ideology, adopted by the Plunket Society, was a flexible response to the tensions and problems confronting colonial society". Olssen qualified this, however and concluded that while the tasks of motherhood may have achieved some "social order and progress", for many women these roles "constituted a form of imprisonment" and despite "King's brilliant synthesis of the old and new", the Society was still hegemonic.

Olssen suggested that King's ideology, experience working for a large bureaucratic organization, and training in new scientific procedures during his involvement in medicine, may have helped modernize the approach to developing disciplined and organized social structures in New Zealand society. King was also influential in promoting the medical profession as having social authority, and elaborated what Olssen called, 'a new religion of health' based on "an ideology of medical theory" to deal not only with disease, but also superstitious beliefs, what was seen at the time as 'backwardness', and "popular immorality." He situated his ideal family as one in which the wife/mother was trained by scientific experts, modelled according to Olssen, on how hospitals and asylums controlled and rehabilitated "deviants." Olssen concluded: "It was probably no coincidence that King had spent almost twenty years as the Medical Superintendent of Seacliff Hospital before turning his considerable energies to invading and subjecting the family to the control of the medical priesthood."

The Working Class in New Zealand (1974)  In this journal article Olssen critiqued a hypothesis put by another historian William Oliver, that social class had little effect on historical social change in New Zealand. Oliver contended that because working people were more concerned with identifying obstructions to social mobility than obvious grievances with capitalism, class consciousness was of little historical significance in the country. Olssen claimed Oliver's hypothesis, that high levels of social mobility in the country reflected workers being empowered to act outside of a class consciousness because of legislation to support arbitration, educational opportunities and the availability of land, could not be validated by research. To support his argument, Olssen defined class in terms of a range of variables including levels of income, the type of occupation, education and where people lived, and suggested that "class is a useful concept if it can be shown that people of approximately similar incomes, derived in a similar manner, working in occupations of equal status act together in pursuit of common goals." He continued his critique with the observation that within New Zealand from the 1880s, working men and women saw the social system as one of class and acted accordingly. This was said to have been evident in the way class consciousness was reflected in the political sphere. Olssen's research indicated that urban working men "voted overwhelmingly for Labour candidates" in the 1890 election, a trend that continued when Labour won a majority of the working class vote in 1919, and with the same support, were elected to government in 1935. Olssen made the point that Labour was not only ideologically class-focussed, but depended for over eighty years on the support of working men and women, calling into question Oliver's assertation that class had no "relevance to New Zealand's past." As further evidence of the significance of class within the urban political structure  of the country, Olssen also suggested that "fear of the working class has played a not inconsiderate  part in holding conservative coalitions together."

When he wrote this paper, Olssen was embarking on a localised study of how social relationships created occupational structures that had political implications for workers within a suburb of Dunedin. His research showed an increasing class consciousness within the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners (ASC&J), a previously conservative union. By 1885, the union had moved closer to working with groups such as the Trades and Labour Council and the Workers' Political Committee and evidence from the union's minutes showed financial support for local strikes and boycotts and the passing of remits "congratulating workers in Germany and the United States for their efforts to achieve an eight hour day." The use of the term 'working class' was used in the union's literature but there was little evidence of a concern with upward mobility, instead, recognising "goals and problems in common with wharf lumpers, shearers, sailors, labourers, tailoresses and boot makers." He also documented how, by 1887, widely-read local publications such as the Otago Workman had moved their support for the rights of working class communities in Dunedin toward articulating a coherent rationale for "a class view of society and politics in New Zealand...caused not by individual inadequacy but by capitalist society...[with]...problems that could not be solved by individual action...but only by solidarity in work and politics." In his conclusion, Olssen acknowledged that while class as a concept or element to explain some political events needed to be kept in perspective, it seemed unlikely that "upward mobility and high floor-low ceiling [had] exorcised class consciousness" from New Zealand.

Book reviews and media contributions

 * A peculiarly contemporary figure (1991). Olssen reviewed two books written by K.R. Howe about Edward Tregear, a significant contributor to New Zealand's social and political history during the 1880s. He suggested that Treager's verse may not have widespread appeal to any but "avid enthusiasts of 19th-century colonial writing...[but]...if the verse has lost interest, the life has not." The biography was said by Olssen to nicely explore Treager's attitude toward a growing "enthusiasm for Maori and Polynesian studies...his intellectual leanings...and shows him appropriating the Māori past in order to make himself more at home." Olssen, however, questioned Howe's mastery of the "historiography on labour history" and is not persuaded "that Tregear still spoke to the conditions of our time...[being more]... a claim born of nostalgia for an older and simpler era; there is little evidence to sustain it."


 * Self-reliant in Victorian New Zealand (1995). This is a review of Nearly Out of Hope and Heart: The puzzle of a colonial labourers Diary. After describing it as [having a] "lively argument, polished prose and methodical sophistication", Olssen contended that the book was about solving a puzzle, and  "Fairburn takes the reader on a journey into another world, armed with all the gadgetry of a late‑twentieth century explorer, and brilliantly illuminates many aspects of colonial society."  He noted that the book explores the diaries of an ordinary labourer in New Zealand between 1888 and 1925 and when seen as a "counterpoint" to Frances Porter's Born to New Zealand, demonstrates Fairburn's "formidable grasp of the relevant historiographical and sociological literatures, which unobtrusively shapes his telling of [Cox's] story." According to Olssen, the book "prompts debate and reflection...also offers a unique lens for investigating colonial life", and justifies the ethno-history of one man, without answering all the questions about his typicality.


 * Public postures, private lives (1999). Olssen's review of books about two significant members of the New Zealand labour movement, James Edwards and Jock Barnes, provided an historical backdrop to the political struggles that drove their activism. Olssen acknowledged that, such biographies provide insight into "periods of unusual significance in [New Zealand's] history...and tell us something of the strengths and weaknesses of the labour movement."


 * Tribute to Michael King (2004). Olssen was one of many historians who expressed sadness at the death of New Zealand historian Michael King in March 2004. In his tribute, Olssen said that King had "recognised the role of Māori history in New Zealand long before other historians....[and]...his first book, Te Puea, was enormously significant, I suspect amongst Māori... but certainly enormously important for Pākehā, in bringing to attention the richness and wealth of 20th century Maori history."  According to Olssen, King had "outstanding" writing skills, and was disappointed he never got to discuss his latest book The Penguin History of New Zealand with him.


 * The New Zealand Family from 1840: A Demographic History (2008).  In his review of this book, Olssen welcomed that demography had become widely accepted in social history and acknowledged the work of the authors in identifying the key trends in the New Zealand family from 1840 onwards and analyzing the implications of their conclusions by comparing these with what is happening in other parts of the English-speaking world. He concluded that the book is "impressive and ambitious...a definitive study of most topics covered and the best study of New Zealand’s various families that we are likely to have for a very long time."


 * Recalling Dunedin's dark days (2008). In an interview to reconsider the effect of the Great Depression on New Zealand, Olssen claimed it was mainly caused by the central Government retrenching to cut spending and borrowing resulting in high levels of unemployment, for which little responsibility was taken leaving it to "local communities...to provide soup kitchens and depots for food, clothing and coal".  Olssen noted that even after the passing of the Unemployment Act (1930), the Dunedin City Council and the Otago Hospital Board took most of the responsibility for supporting the unemployed. In the article, Olssen told of relief schemes that provided insufficient money to live on and often forced workers on these schemes to take unpaid leave ('holidays'), sometimes resulting in them being out of work for "one week in every four". This  caused industrial unrest in Dunedin with several riots beginning on 9 January 1932, suggested by Olseen as reflecting that "many on the Left felt that the only way to stop governments from retrenching still further and further with all the human cost was to get their people out on to the streets and make it clear that it was going to be a pretty high cost in terms of civil disorder." The Depression lessened from 1933 but Olssen concludes it had become an "indictment of human stupidity" and young people are smart and wise enough to understand that it should never have happened.


 * God's own land...maybe even more than we thought (2008). In 2008 there was a debate in the New Zealand media about the claim by an associate professor at the University of Otago that the country's history was being distorted by "secular and left-liberal" historians, such as Olssen and Keith Sinclair to push their own agendas. Olssen called the claim "either unfair or disingenuous or both" but noted that he had often discussed whether New Zealand was a Christian country with the associate professor and there was some agreement that Christianity had influenced in shaping the values of New Zealand. Sharing that he did not believe in the Christian "creed", Olssen also questioned how many of the mainstream population actually believed.


 *  Graduates facing 'greater challenges (2012).' On 27 August 2012, in his presentation to graduates from the University of Otago, Olssen highlighted the differences in the world at the time from when he was a student fifty years previously.  The key point made was that the challenge for students in 2012 [was] "navigating the tidal wave of expanding knowledge" and compared to his graduation, it was necessary to see the journey to gain knowledge as an "adventure" that was just beginning.


 * Hillary stands atop summit of NZ fame (2013). In 2013, sixty years after Edmund Hillary had conquered Mount Everest, Olssen contributed to the discussion about how the mountaineer  ranked among New Zealand's heroes. He suggested Hillary would top most New Zealanders' lists, noting that Kiwis [not only] "love his famous remark on descending from Mt Everest that 'we knocked the bastard off', [but that] he said it as if he was just coming down for a cup of tea."  He also suggested that while sports people are often held in high regard, Hillary demonstrated individual "skill, courage and self-effacement" that reflected his life and achievements.


 * What we need is a melting pot (2015). In an opinion piece in the Otago Daily Times, Olssen reflected on a previous article in the paper examining data from the United States that had shown an increasingly diverse range of cultures in the country and considerrf the implications for New Zealand. He cited data from the 2013 census that he had helped to collate and noted increased diversification of the population in the country with evidence of considerable regional differences.  In the article, Olssen statedf that "youth and cultural diversity make for demographic and social dynamism...[and]..today's diversity is a boon and a godsend, occurring just in time to save us from our ageing white selves."  He claimed that with diversity there is a "demographic dividend...[and New Zealand]...needs to make sure it reaps the advantage....[as]... economic growth [and] greater cultural diversity... both contribute to a dynamic and lively society."


 * Simplicity compounds ignorance (2019). When 2017 New Zealand Rhodes Scholar, Jean Balchin attempted to correct a children's book, This is Captain Cook in the interests of "overcoming ignorance of one's own culture", Olssen took issue with three of her points.  He held that  the use of the term 'murder' in the context of the first interactions between Cook and local Māori is not used by scholars such as Anne Salmond'; cited Belich that high levels of sexual abuse committed by Cook's crew was unlikely; and while conceding [that] "in some colonial contexts Europeans deliberately spread such diseases as smallpox in order to kill an indigenous people, nobody has ever reported any evidence that this happened in New Zealand [and] is certainly untrue of Cook or any of his counterparts." To the contrary, Olssen recounted the efforts taken by Cook to prevent his crew from engaging with Tahitians when there was some contraction of venereal infections, concluding that "throughout his three voyages he constantly tried to prevent the spread of these diseases." Rather than what Olssen described as "sweeping generalisations [which] are also a-historical... much more careful and fine-grained analysis is necessary."


 * History in the making: the battle over the new school curriculum (2021). After the release of the draft history curriculum for New Zealand schools in 2021, Olssen was one of many historians who commented on the document. He wrote that the draft does not "acknowledge...[or]... study such important developments as the creation of one of the world’s oldest democratic political systems and societies; an economy that has sustained a high standard of living, a healthy population with long life expectancy, and a global innovator in producing food for a global market."

Distinctions

 * Trustee of the Turnbull Endowment Trust (as of 2023) since 1986 and a member of the Special Committee Alexander Turnbull until it closed in 2003


 * Fellow of the New Zealand Academy of the Humanities (2008)


 * Fellow of the Hoken Library (2007)''


 * Member of Cultural Heritage Advisory Group (2006)


 * Distinguished Fulbright Fellow (2004)


 * Chair of the Humanities and Peer Review Law Panel for the first-round of the Performance Based Research Fund 2003.


 * James Cook Fellow (2001)


 * Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand (1998)


 * Advisory Committee for the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (1983-1996)


 * Dunedin City Council Sesquicentennial Publications Committee (1995-1998)


 * Member Social Science Advisory Committee of Foundation for Research, Science & Technology (1997-2000)


 * Member Otago Goldfields Park Advisory Committee (1977-1984)


 * History Curriculum Committee (1983-1988)

Honours and awards
In the 2002 Queen's Birthday and Golden Jubilee Honours List, Olssen was awarded The Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (O.N.Z.M.) for services to historical research.

Olssen received the Te Rangi Hiroa Medal in 2001.

Olssen's publication Building the New World: work, politics and society in Caversham, 1880s-1920s, won the J.E. Sherrard Prize, 1996.

In 1978 Olssen's book John A. Lee was placed 2nd in the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards.

The Erik Olssen Prize named in recognition of Olssen's work as a historian, is awarded biennially by The New Zealand Historical Association for the best first book by an author on any aspect of New Zealand History.