Guns and utu : a short history of the musket wars / Matthew Wright.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 212-247) and index.

Introduction: stepping back a pace or two -- 1. Myths and conception -- 2. Goblins from afar -- 3. The "life and genius" of society -- 4. Encircling the lands -- 5. Flesh in collision -- 6. Muskets, bayonets and blood -- 7. Digging for Empire -- 8. Earth-shakers and earthworks -- 9. Finding God? -- 10. Legacies of turmoil -- Glossary -- List of maps -- 1. Ngā Puhi and Te Amiowhenua -- 2. Hawke's Bay -- 3. Ngāti Toa movements and toa -- 4. Summary migrations and final positions to 1840.

"In the two decades before the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand was ripped asunder by island-spanning waves of warfare, extreme violence and cannibalism. 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, one thing we can be certain about is that these dramatic conflicts were not simply 'musket' wars. They were part of a wide-ranging response by Maori to the first culture-contact in their history - exposing all the realities of the human condition. 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 the wars"--Back cover.