Myth and legend swirl about the New Zealand wars, nearly three decades of open warfare between Maori, British and settler that erupted in the mid-1840s and continued, intermittently, until 1872. In Two Peoples, One Land, noted social and military historian Matthew Wright draws on extensive primary research and investigation of the battlefields to paint a vivid and illuminating picture of personality, conflict and societies in upheaval. In the process he reveals that the wars were far more than just a military tale, they also shaped Maori and Pakeha worlds in ways that neither people fully understood at the time. And, although open fighting ended in 1872, the forces that drove the wars did not dissipate. Ultimately, Wright argues, these were wars without end.
Reviews
"Two Peoples, One Land marries an impressive breadth of research into a fascinating story that provides new assessments of events that still resonate in our lives. This is an important book that deserves to be read, and one that grips you from the first pages." - Christopher Pugsley, Department of War Studies, Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
"Wright is rapidly emerging as one of our most prolific military and social historians, an assiduous researcher and no mere blinkered follower of academic and ideological fashion. Far from it... Wright has produced as detailed, sensible and satisfactory a military history of the campaigns waged between 1845 and 1872 as one might hope to read...Wright corrects many of Belich's errors and his more fanciful and extravagant assertions, through superior knowledge of military history and ruthless logic... this book is to be warmly recommended. It is splendidly illustrated and the footnotes are exemplary."
- Edmund Bohan, The Press, 16 September 2006.
"Wright does a good job portraying the complexities...Place this superbly illustrated volume alongside your James Belich volumes and your Michael King." - James Richie, Waikato Times, 23 December 2006.
