The Invention of the Passport: Surveillance, Citizenship and the State

This innovative book argues that documents such as passports, internal passports and related mechanisms have been crucial in making distinctions between citizens and noncitizens. It explains how the concept of citizenship has been used over the past 200 years to delineate rights and penalties regarding property, liberty, taxes and welfare. Focusing on the United States and Western Europe, it combines theory and empirical data in questioning how and why states have established the exclusive right to authorize and regulate the movement of people.