Unsettled States, Disputed Lands

Ian Lustick... has written a valuable study concerning the changing relationship of Britain to Ireland (1834-1922); France to Algeria (1936-62) and Israel to the West Bank/Gaza (since 1967). This richly detailed and thoroughly documented book can be read on a number of different levels and therefore has much to offer to a wide variety of audiences.

-- Robert Bookmiller * Middle East Policy *

In a major study that moves between path-breaking theorizing and analysis that is relevant to today's headlines, the author examines the process by which states expand and contract.... He develops a useful model of state expansion and contraction, focusing on how the issue of incorporating outlying territories is dealt with in the political arena.... While written before the recent Israeli-PLO agreement, this book has been made more, not less, timely by events that could only be guessed at when the author was writing this stimulating, often difficult, but ultimately very rewarding study.

* Foreign Affai