How invasive species establish and spread is a central question in biology, but also one that impacts public perceptions of and engagement with those species. I use the invasive European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) as a case study to identify factors supporting its establishment and expansion in the United States, and to consider its evolutionary history in its native range. In my first chapter, I integrate recent work in the evolutionary genetics of invasive European starling populations with ecological studies over its residence in each region, identifying areas for future research. In my second chapter, I use genomic methods to reconstruct demographic history and test for natural selection in the North American invasion, and I find that starlings in North America show evidence for local adaptation despite a genetic bottleneck upon invasion. In my third chapter, I compare patterns of genetic variation between the concurrent North American and Australian invasions: starling populations show remarkably high differentiation from each other on a short evolutionary timescale, and this differentiation is consistent with selection in at least a few regions of the genome. In my fourth chapter, I consider starling invasions from the perspective of science and technology studies (STS), tracing where human interference and potential biases shape both the practice of invasion science. I consider how my own genomic analyses depend on assumptions in both population genetic methods and invasion theory. Overall, this dissertation attempts to reconstruct the evolutionary history of starling invasions, with a focus on the invasion in North America.