Paul Frymer’s book, “Building an American Empire” won the J. David Greenstone Book Prize from the American Political Science Association (APSA) and the Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship, Political Sociology Section Book award from the American Sociological Association's (ASA) section in political sociology.

Frymer is professor of politics and director of the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University and a Woodrow Wilson School associated faculty. His focus is on topics in American law and politics as they intersect with issues of democratic representation, race and civil rights, and labor and employment.

Frymer’s award-winning book explores how American westward expansion was engineered by the government to promote the formation of a white settler nation. He explains the federal government’s use of federal land policy to shape population movement and influence the formation of 48 contiguous states.

In his book, Frymer also reveals the significance government settlement policies had for both establishing America as a dominantly white state and for confining broader aspirations for empire in lands that could not be so racially fashioned.

The APSA is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. The ASA is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology.