"Blood Narrative is recommended both for its localizations and its potential to spill over into adjacent fields of Indigenous study with impact." — Michael Jacklin , The Australian Journal of Anthropology
"Blood Narrative, by Chadwick Allen. . . ,is a welcome addition to post-modern studies, steeped in postcolonial theory." — Benjamin Kracht , History: Reviews of New Books
"[An] exemplary transnational project. . . . Allen's book displays-in addition to a broad grasp of certain theories, bodies of literature and criticism, and historical records-original, independent thinking. These strengths are complemented by the clarity and coherence of his prose. . . . This is a noteworthy book that deserves wide reading." — Stephen Tatum , Western American Literature
"[W]ell documented. . . . [T]he parallel that Allen traces between the Maoris and the American Indians is enlightening. It underlies significant differences as well as similarities between the two groups and explains well their respective development up to their entry onto the international stage." — Natacha Gagné , Pacific Affairs
"Allen's historical narrative is sturdy and useful. . . . [He] provides an ambitious synthetic and comparative work that fills some open scholarly niches and should be valuable for research and teaching." — Susan A. Miller , Studies in American Indian Literatures
"Chadwick Allen has produced a complex and significant study, which contributes to the growing body of research, writing and teaching in the comparative history of Indigenous Peoples. . . . [H]is work has created new understanding about both the meanings and contradictions of indigenous identity. . . . This book would be profitable reading for those Australians, both indigenous and non-indigenous, who seek recognition of the basic sovereign rights enshrined in a treaty." — Roderic Lacey, Journal of Pacific History
"Chadwick Allen has produced a groundbreaking, thought-provoking narrative on the evolution of Maori and American Indian thought during the 'indigenous renaissance' of the late twentieth century. . . . [T]he work is a significant contribution to the literature of New Zealand-American comparative studies." — Harry A. Kersey Jr., Journal of World History
"The strength of Allen's provocative book lies in its analysis of the literature that emerged during the Maori and American Indian 'renaissance' of the 1960s and early 1970s. . . . Allen's comparative study is worth a careful read for scholars interested in the construction of indigenous identities in postcolonial situations." — James O. Gump , Pacific Historical Review
"This study of the complex interplay of indigenous blood, land, and memory investigates with impressive skill and organization a subtle and often confounding moment in indigenous minority letters." — Sean Teuton , Interventions
"Blood Narrative is a valuable, wise, and thoughtful study." — Elizabeth Cook-Lynn , American Literature
“Chadwick Allen traces the ‘inseparable triad’ of blood, land, and memory in two cultures and distinct generations of indigenous writers and activists. Blood Narrative is an original, persuasive consideration of Native American Indian and New Zealand Maori tropes of indigenous identity. Natives and the Maori created viable identities in ‘dominant discourses’ during the Second World War, but the pride of national service was not a practicable source of indigenous identities in the simulations of postwar modernity. A generation later identities were constructed by political resistance, literary subversion, and cultural activism. Many writers have asserted ‘blood memory’ as a strategy of contemporary indigenous identity and survivance. Allen provides a cogent, astute critique of these memorable triads and complex turns of identity.” — Gerald Vizenor, University of California, Berkeley
“I cannot think of a more provocative or evocative title for a book that addresses the narrative tactics and activism of indigenous writings. Allen draws upon the tactical differences deployed by American Indian and New Zealand Maori writers to provide insights into the ways that indigenous minority writing has defined an enduring identity of indigeneity. Blood Narrative is elegantly written, provocative in some of its arguments, rich in examples and well worth reading.” — Linda Tuhiwai Smith, The University of Auckland