This volume was brought about by the editor’s dual interests in Roman frontier studies, and the historical archaeology of North America, after identifying differences in the treatment of how colonialism is treated by researchers in these two fields. He seeks to introduce a new discipline of comparative colonial archaeology, which specifically highlights the benefits of the comparative approach. Papers were invited from a variety of scholars working on the subject of western colonialism, with an emphasis on the post-medieval period. Synthetic chapters are presented on the historical archaeology of Scandinavia, Labrador, the Caribbean, Australia, various regions in the US, and on the theory behind comparative historical archaeology.