Unsettled States, Disputed Lands: Britain and Ireland, France and Algeria, Israel and the West Bank-Gaza (Wilder House Series in Politics, History, and Culture)
- Book Review,
by Ian S. Lustick
From Library Journal
Lustick is a distinguished professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has published several works on Israel. In this significant scholarly book, he expands his analysis of Israel to include the French colonial experience in Algeria and the British experience in Ireland. Using these three case studies, Lustick formulates a theory of state expansion and contraction that moves beyond the ideas of states being fixed in their borders and expanding through imperial conquest, or contracting through a cost-benefit calculation of the burdens of imperial control. He argues instead that there are stages of expansion and contraction that move across critical thresholds, which have greater or lesser impact on the regimes or states, institutions, values, and elites. Lustick assesses Ireland, Algeria, and Palestine in terms of this theory, providing a most informative analysis. His work will be of significant value to students of comparative politics. Highly recommended for academic history and political science collections.- Richard B. Finnegan, Stonehill Coll., North Easton, Mass.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Book News, Inc.
A pathbreaking study--carried out over a decade and a half<-;- >analyzing the processes, policies, and factors involved when states incorporate additional territories, and when they relinquish control over territories. The initial impetus for the analysis was the relationship of Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the theory was developed by comparing the changing relationships of Britain to Ireland (1834-1922) and France to Algeria (1936-62). Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
Book Description
"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 Affairs
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