Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"In
License to Travel, Bixby explores the passport’s linguistic journey and much else. . . . An impressive survey." * Wall Street Journal *
"A comprehensive, insightful history. . . . Bixby offers up a formidable survey of this everyday artifact and how it defines individuals and affords varying degrees of privilege and freedom, depending on one’s place of birth." * New York Times *
"Neatly lays out the mighty power of the passport and the pains of passport inequality. . . . With
License to Travel, Bixby also makes the argument that applying and carrying a passport is not just an administrative hoop that travelers must jump through: Having a passport gives us the freedom to travel—and the freedom to thrive." * AFAR Magazine *
"Read this book and you’ll never again treat your passport so casually." * Geography Realm *
"Bixby offers a new cultural history of the passport, exploring its pre-history, emergence and its current status today. This beautifully written and accessible book will be a great introduction for people wanting to learn more about passports and their politics of inclusion and exclusion." * LSE Review of Books *
"This readable narrative history will interest all who travel abroad as well as those denied the opportunity." * CHOICE *
"Charmingly written. . . . An appealing, accessible, and enlightening choice of reading on this subject." * International Migration Review *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: "The Most Precious Book I Possess"
Part One: A Prehistory of the Passport as We Know It
1 • Ancient Bodies, Ancient Citizens
2 • Great Sovereigns, Grand Tourists
3 • Modern Bodies, Modern Citizens
Part Two: The Advent of the Passport as We Know It
4 • Modernists and Militants
Part Three: The Passport as We Know It
5 • Expelled and Stateless
6 • Migrants and Marxists
7 • Alien and Indigenous
Epilogue: Good Passports Bad Passports
Notes
Index
