Books by Lisa Ford

During the Age of Revolution, the British Crown responded to crises in its colonies with a heavy hand. Lisa Ford shows how imperial peacekeeping methods, which blurred the line between the rule of law and the rule of the sword, transformed the imperial constitution and corroded colonial subjectivity.

In a comparative study of law and imperialism, Ford argues that modern settler sovereignty emerged when settlers in North America and Australia defined indigenous theft and violence as crime. Ford traces the emergence of modern settler sovereignty in contests between settlers and indigenous people in Georgia and the colony of New South Wales.