"Modern and multidisciplinary. . . . Settling for Less provides the most comprehensive analysis of settler colonialism."---Kyosuke Kikuta, The Developing Economies

"Prodigious research and presentation."

Choice

"McNamee’s book is mandatory reading for scholars interested in both the causes and consequences of colonization. . . . Charles Tilly once warned us not to crow too loudly about the death of empires. But Lachlan McNamee’s excellent, accessible, and well-written book has given us reason to crow. Slowly but surely, the structural force of modernization works against the strategic goals of empire."---Jacob Gerner, Perspectives on Politics

"McNamee asks big questions, constructs an original and provocative theory, unearths previously unused, indeed, unknown data, and compiles persuasive evidence to support his hypotheses . . . Settling for Less is an extraordinary first book of the sort to which authors aspire."---David A. Lake, Political Science Quarterly