Guns and Utu: A Short History of the Musket Wars
Penguin, Auckland 2011
‘A spectacular book…well worth reading’ – Don Rood, Radio New Zealand, 2 August 2011.
‘As is often the case with Matthew Wright’s work, a very readable analysis …’ - Kathryn Ryan, Radio New Zealand, 2 August 2011
'...a gallop through the tribal skirmishes of the early 19th century...a welcome look at a little understood - and these days little known - era of New Zealand history'
- Mike Houlahan, D Scene, 31 August 2011
'A valuable contribution to the growing wealth of well-written material on the subject’ - Tom O'Connor, Waikato Times, 19 September 2011
In the two decades before the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand was ripped asunder by island-spanning waves of cannibalism, warfare and extreme violence. Great war parties surged the length of the land to avenge historic grievances, killing and burning as they went. Whole peoples were uprooted and found new homes.
Despite the name given them by history, the one thing we can be certain about this tumult is that these dramatic conflicts were not ‘musket’ wars. This was an age of courage, of heroism, of great character and of astonishing deeds. And they are not dead history. Twenty-first century New Zealand has been profoundly shaped by them, not least in the location of most of the major cities.
In this book, noted historian Matthew Wright disputes the mythologies and looks at some of the whys and wherefores of this generation-long cauldron of cultures in collision.
Paperback, 256 pp
ISBN 978 0 14 356565 9
Visit this book at Penguin
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