Paul Moon

Paul Moon
Professor Paul Moon, 2011
Born	Paul Moon (1968-10-18) 18 October 1968 (age 48) Auckland, New Zealand
Occupation	Historian, author

Paul Moon (born 1968) is a New Zealand historian and a professor at the Auckland University of Technology. He is a prolific writer of New Zealand history and biography, specialising in Māori history, the Treaty of Waitangi and the early period of Crown rule.

Paul Moon holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Political Studies, a Master of Philosophy degree with distinction, a Master of Arts degree with honours, and a Doctor of Philosophy. In 2003, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society at University College London, and is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Moon is recognised for his study of the Treaty of Waitangi, and has published two books on the topic. He has also produced the biographies of Governors William Hobson and Robert FitzRoy, and the Ngā Puhi chief Hone Heke. In 2003, he published the book Tohunga: Hohepa Kereopa, an explication regarding tohunga of the Ngāi Tūhoe. He has also written a major biography of the Ngā Puhi politician and Kotahitanga leader Hone Heke Ngapua (1869–1909), and wrote the best-selling Fatal Frontiers – a history of New Zealand in the 1830s. In addition to writing books, Moon is a frequent contributor to national and international academic journals on a variety of history-related topics.

Currently, Moon is Professor of History at the Auckland University of Technology's Te Ara Poutama, the Faculty of Māori Development, where he has taught since 1993, and estimated to be one of New Zealand's most financially successful authors, based on a combination of his prolific output and estimated sales of each of his books.

In June 2014, Moon was shortlisted for the Ernest Scott Prize in History, which "...is awarded to work based upon original research which is, in the opinion of the examiners, the most distinguished contribution to the history of Australia or New Zealand or to the history of colonisation."