Erik Olssen

In his study of Otago, a New Zealand province, Olssen explored the relationships between Māori and colonists from Britain that, in the 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".[2]^: viii 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.[2]^: 21 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".[2]^: 25

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.[2]^: 243 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."[19] 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".[2]^: 33–35

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.[20] 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".[21] On 28 October 1990, a large group of seaman led 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.[2]^: 111 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".[22]

The period following World War I, was described by Olssen as [one of] "uncertainty and nostalgic introspection" for Otago.[2] 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.[2]^: 137 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.[2]^{: pp 146–147} 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.[2]^: 151 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.[2]^{: 159–160}

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".[13] 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".[23]^: 1 Olssen explained the background of the project was within a debate about the role of social class in New Zealand and the purpose was to systematically measure the extent of social and geographical mobility in Caversham borough.[4]^: 3 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.[9]^{: 181–184} From 1975 until 1901, Olssen was Principal Investigator.[24]

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.[25]^: 363 This made it difficult to ascertain if the occupational structure in Caversham was typical of New Zealand in general,[23] and the extent to which the social–occupational structure in urban New Zealand was comparable to those in other capitalist-industrial societies.[26]^: 212 Nevertheless the position was taken that "local case studies are the only viable way of identifying occupational structure and mobility in New Zealand",[23]^: 1–2 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".[27]

• The Skilled Workers: Journeymen and Masters in Caversham, 1880–1914 (1988).[28] 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.[28]
• The Power of the Shop Culture: The Labour Process in the New Zealand Railway Workshops 1890–1930 (1992).[29] 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".[29]^: 374 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.[29]
• Building the New World: work, politics and society in Caversham, 1880s–1920s (1995).[4][30] 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.[4]^: 1 He also defined what "skilled' work was and showed that between 1902 and 1922 "skilled men dominated Caversham".[4]^: 47 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".[31] 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."[32]^: 83–84 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".[33]
• Sites of Gender: Women, Men & Modernity in Southern Dunedin, 1890–1939 (2003).[34] 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,[35]^: 56 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.[35]^: 85 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".[36] 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".[37]
• Class, Gender and the Vote (2005).[38] 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.[39] 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".[39]^: 98
• An Accidental Utopia? Social Mobility and the Foundations of an Egalitarian Society, 1880–1940 (2010).[40] 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. [40] 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.[40]^{: pp 30–31} 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.[22] 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".[41] 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".[42] Another reviewer noted that the data-based approach of the authors made a strong case that social class was important in New Zealand history.[43]
• Movement and Persistence: A Case Study of Southern Dunedin in Global Context (2011).[44] This was a paper submitted by Olssen to Building Attachment in Families (2011)[45], 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".[45] Olssen 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".[44]^: 23
• Working Lives c.1900 A Photographic Essay [46] was launched in August 2014 by Dave Cull a former mayor of Dunedin.[47] 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,[48] 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.[49] 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".[50] 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".[51] 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".[52] 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".[53] 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.[46]^{: p 150} Olssen contended [that] "the Dunedin accommodation was now national",[46]^{: 156–157} 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.[2]^{: p 243}[2]^: 137[54]^: 85[2]^{: 126–135} 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".[46]^{: 156–157}

The Introduction to The People and the Land Te Tangata me te Whenua: An Illustrated History of New Zealand, 1820–1920 (1990)[55], 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.[55]

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".[56]^: 337 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.[56]

In another key publication The Red Feds: Revolutionary Industrial Unionism and the New Zealand Federation of Labour 1908–14 (1988)[3] Olssen documented the rise of organised labour and showed how this played a key role during the changes of this period.

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.[57]^: 240 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".[57]^: 244 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".[57]^: 244

By 1900, according to Olssen, New Zealand was "again prosperous and content"[58]^: 253 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.[57] 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",[57]^: 247 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.[58]^: 261 Olssen suggested these initiatives embodied [a] "vision of a re-ordered family as the basis for a decent society",[57]^: 249 and confirmed the widespread view that New Zealand was the "best place on earth".[57]^{: 250–251} 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.[58]^: 262

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[59] 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".[58]^: 254

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". [58]^: 279 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".[60]^: 271 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.[58]^: 274

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.[58]^{: pp 268–270}

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.[60]^{: pp 283–285}

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.[60]^{: pp 288–290}

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."[60]^: 294 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".[60]^: 296

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.[61]^: 299 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 harassing 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.[61]^: 302

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.[61]^: 316 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.[61]^: 311 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.[61]^: 316

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[62], 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.[61]^: 304 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.[61]^: 306 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.[61]^: 314 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.[61]^{: 314–316}

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.[63] One researcher, cited by Olssen,[56]^: 339 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".[64]^: 41

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.[56]^: 334 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".[56]^: 328 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".[56]^: 334 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'.[56]^: 335

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".[56]^: 319

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".[56]^: 337 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".[56]^: 339

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,[65] and the Federated Seamen's Union.[66][67] 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.[67]

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.[3] 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".[68] 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".[3]^{: xiii–xiv} Olssen maintained 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 Pat Hickey and Paddy Webb national figures with visions "class solidarity and industrial unionism".[3]^: 3 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.[60]^: 283

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.[69] 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. [3]^: 27

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.[60]^{: 292–293} There was some consolidation of organised labour in 1913 when a conference established the United Federation of Labour (UFL).[70] 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. [71] 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.[70]^: 1 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.[71]

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.[70] 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".[3]^: 223

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".[72] 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 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".[54]^: 96 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.[54]^: 85

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.[56]^: 336 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."[54]^: 96

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.

In his 1977 biography,[1] 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".[1]^: 9 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.[1]^: 12

Lee enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force NZEF in March 1916 and served overseas during World War I.[73] 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[74] and edited by Clutha Mackenzie.[75] 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.[76]^: 121 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".[1]^: 21

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.[73] 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".[1]^: 22

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.[1]^: 27 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.[73] 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".[76]^{: p 123} 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.[76]^{: 124–125}

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.[1]^: 55–57 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".[1]^{: p 58} 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".[1]^{: p 59}

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.[1]^: 60–61 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.[1]^{: p 67}

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".[77]^: 219 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).[77]^: 219 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",[78] 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.[73] 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".[1]^{: p 70}

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". [73] 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.[79]^: 34–39 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".[79]^: 48–49

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.[80]^: 4 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".[81] 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.[82]