Dick Scott (historian)
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17 November 1923
Palmerston North, New Zealand
Dick Scott | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Richard George Scott 17 November 1923 Palmerston North, New Zealand |
| Died | 1 January 2020 (aged 96) |
| Language | English |
| Alma mater | Massey College |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Subject | New Zealand and Pacific history |
| Notable awards | Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement |
| Relatives | Rosie Scott (daughter) |
Richard George Scott ONZM (17 November 1923 – 1 January 2020) was a New Zealand historian and journalist.
Scott's first book, 151 Days (1952), was an account of the 1951 New Zealand waterfront dispute.[1] It has been described as capturing "the dark days of that winter of discontent with an energy and immediacy, lost by subsequent more dispassionate accounts."[2]
His most well-known work is Ask That Mountain (1975), which recounts the events of the non-violent Māori resistance to European occupation at Parihaka. " The story had largely been forgotten by non-Māori New Zealanders until the book's publication. It has been reprinted nine times, and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark called it "one of New Zealand's most influential books".[3][4] Historian Kerry Taylor says Ask That Mountain was "fundamental to a change in Pākehā consciousness to the darker reality of colonialism."[2] Scott also published an earlier, briefer account of the events in 1954, The Parihaka Story.[1] He later claimed that Ask That Mountain was the historical work he was most proud of.[2]
Scott wrote several histories related to the Auckland region, such as In Old Mount Albert: Being a History of the District (1961), Fire on the Clay: The Pakeha Comes to West Auckland (1979) and Seven Lives on Salt River (1979), which won the New Zealand Book Award for Non-Fiction and the J M Sherrard prize for regional history.[2]
He also wrote more general New Zealand works, including Inheritors of a Dream: A Pictorial History of New Zealand (1962) and Winemakers of New Zealand (1964), and Pacific histories such as Years of the Pooh-Bah: A Cook Islands History (1991) and Would a Good Man Die? Niue Island, New Zealand, and the late Mr Larsen (1993).[1]
In 2004, Scott published his autobiography, Dick Scott: A Radical Writer's Life, which recounted his early years in the Communist Party, as well as his writing approach and career.[4][5]
Honours and awards
Scott was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to historical research, in the 2002 Queen's Birthday and Golden Jubilee Honours,[6] and in 2007 he received the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement (Non-Fiction).[4] In 2016 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Massey University's College of Humanities and Social Sciences in recognition of the influence of his historical research and writing.[2]
