Michael Hechter is Foundation Professor of Political Science at Arizona State University and Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington. Author of Internal Colonialism: The Celtic Fringe in British National Development, Principles of Group Solidarity, and Containing Nationalism, he has edited five books and written numerous articles in academic journals. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, his works have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, French, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Arabic, Romanian, Hungarian, and Georgian.

• 1. Introduction; 2. Alien rule and its discontents; 3. The failure of legitimate rule in Iraq; 4. Resistance to alien rule in Taiwan and Korea; 5. Dynamics of military occupation; 6. Academic receivership as alien rule Gail Dubrow and Debra Friedman; 7. Conclusion.

'Alien Rule is a conceptually innovative and interesting book that blazes a theoretical trail on this important topic. The core of the book is the observation that one can find examples of alien rulers in a wide range of spheres who have managed to gain legitimacy and rule successfully. This frames the central puzzle of the book: under what conditions can alien rule produce legitimacy? Michael Hechter offers a stimulating discussion of a great variety of cases, one that perhaps he alone is able to provide due to his unusually broad intellectual engagement with multiple disciplines. This, combined with the fact that it is written by one of the world's leading sociologists, virtually guarantees the book will get substantial attention.' Henry E. Hale, The George Washington University