The Picky Eagle

The Picky Eagle (first published by Cornell University Press in 2020, with a paperback edition released in September 2023) explains why the United States stopped annexing territory by focusing on annexation’s domestic political and normative consequences. In addition to offering an updated history of the foundations of U.S. territorial expansion, it adds important nuance to previous theories of great-power expansion, with implications for our understanding of U.S. foreign policy and international relations.

In contrast to conventional accounts of a nineteenth-century shift from territorial expansion to commercial expansion, I argue that U.S. ambitions were selective from the start. Offering domestic impact theory as an improvement upon existing theories that prioritize the profitability of conquest, The Picky Eagle tests it across 23 case studies examining the decision-making of U.S. leaders facing opportunities to pursue annexation between 1775 and 1898. U.S. presidents, secretaries, and congressmen consistently worried about how absorbing new territories would affect their domestic political influence and their goals for their country. These leaders were particularly sensitive to annexation’s domestic costs where xenophobia interacted with their commitment to democracy: rather than grant political representation to a large alien population or subject it to a long-term imperial regime, they regularly avoided both of these perceived bad options by rejecting annexation. As a result, U.S. leaders often declined even profitable opportunities for territorial expansion, and they renounced the practice entirely once no desirable targets remained.

Endorsements

“Impressively researched and persuasively argued, Richard Maass’s The Picky Eagle takes a fresh look at the forces driving American expansionism and offers new and intriguing answers to the often overlooked question of why the nation did not annex additional territory. Highly recommended for historians and political scientists.”
George Herring, author of From Colony to Superpower

“The Picky Eagle poses important and provocative questions about the history of territorial expansion, annexation, and imperialism—and its future. The theoretical approach is original, capturing the American case better than any other work in political science.”
Scott Silverstone, author of Divided Union

“In this sweeping, engaging account, Richard Maass makes the compelling case that the U.S. appetite for annexation was often tempered by a reluctance to absorb culturally different populations or those who would side with domestic political opponents.”
Peter Liberman, author of Does Conquest Pay?

Reviews

H-Diplo (Stacie Goddard, Dale Copeland, Joseph Parent, Kenneth Schultz, Bartholomew Sparrow)

Perspectives on Politics (Paul MacDonald)

International Affairs (Hilde Restad)

Political Science Quarterly (Jay Sexton)

Related Media

Richard W. Maass, “‘Difficult to Relinquish Territory Which Had Been Conquered’: Expansionism and the War of 1812,” Diplomatic History 39, no. 1 (January 2015), 70-97.
This article aims to end the pervasive myth that the United States was trying to annex Canada during the War of 1812. It was not (for reasons introduced here and discussed in greater depth in The Picky Eagle).

“The Picky Eagle: How Democracy and Xenophobia Limited U.S. Territorial Expansion,” The Ambassador’s Brief (5/15/20)

“Xenophobic Roots of U.S. Foreign Policy,” Cornell University Press Authors’ Blogs (5/13/20)

The Past, The Promise, The Presidency: Race & The American Legacy, Episode 8: William McKinley, hosted by Lindsay Chervinsky, Sharron Conrad, and Jeffrey Engel, sponsored by the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University, November 2020

New Books Network interview with Grant Golub, September 2021

Teaching World Politics Project interview, organized by Daniel Nexon, August 2020

“Hegemon: American Territorial Expansion and the Creation of the Liberal International Order,” virtual event with Emma Ashford and Patrick Porter, CATO Institute, July 30, 2020

“1869: The Cornell University Press Podcast,” Episode 93 (May 20, 2020)

For more information: https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501748752/the-picky-eagle/#bookTabs=1