This important and valuable volume, which comprises some of the contributions from a conference held at the University of York in the spring of 2006, sets out to provide broad, comparative perspectives on the study of forced migrations in the modern era, which is defined here as the period from roughly the early 19th century onwards. As the editors explain in their concise introduction, their intention is to bring together for concentrated, comparative study instances of forced population movements that have often been treated as distinct entities in the existing literature. The book aims to transcend the categories ‘ethnic cleansing’ and ‘genocide’ that have dominated much of the relevant historiography. The two concepts have often been seen as two points on a continuum of forced migrations, distinguished primarily by whether or not ‘the intentional killing off part or all of an ethnic, religious or national group’ was an integral part of the process. [1] Here, the editors apply another, broader category, namely ‘forced removal’, which they define loosely as ‘the [forced] displacement of people … which may take many forms, only one of which is their physical destruction’ (p. 5). In their view, ‘forced removal’ provides a framework for bringing together a wide variety of ‘practices that have previously been treated as distinct from one another’ (p. 5), ranging from the mass expulsions associated with armed conflicts to the resettlements of native populations in various colonial settings and the less than voluntary departures of colonial elites from their areas of residence in the context of decolonization.