Erik Olssen is emeritus professor at the Department of History, University of Otago. His research interests focus on the relationships between politics, society, ideas, culture and economics. He was elected an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi. His many books include A History of Otago (John McIndoe, 1984), The Red Feds: Revolutionary Industrial Unionism and the New Zealand Federation of Labour 1908–14 (Oxford University Press, 1988), Building the New World: Work, Politics and Society in Caversham 1880s–1920s (Auckland University Press, 1995), and (as co-author) An Accidental Utopia? Social Mobility and the Foundations of an Egalitarian Society, 1880–1940 (Otago University Press, 2011).