Documenting Individual Identity – The Development of State Practices in the Modern World - Hardcover

Caplan, Jane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691009112 ISBN 13: 9780691009117

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2002

Synopsis

This work addresses one of the least studied yet most pervasive aspects of modern life - the techniques and mechanisms by which official agencies certify individual identity. From passports and identity cards to labour registration and alien documentation, from fingerprinting to much-debated contemporary issues such as DNA-typing, body surveillance, and the catastrophic results of colonial-era identity documentation in postcolonial Rwanda, the book offers a comprehensive historical overview of this topic. The nineteen essays in this volume represent the collaborative effort of historians, sociologists, historians of science, political scientists, economists, and specialists in international relations. Together they cover a period from the emergence of systematic practices of written identification in early modern Europe through to the present day, and a geographic range that includes Europe, the Soviet Union, North and South America, and Africa. While the book is attuned to the nefarious possibilities of states' increasing capacity to identify individuals, it recognizes that these same techniques also certify citizens' eligibility for significant positive rights, such as welfare be

About this title

About the Author

Jane Caplan is Marjorie Walter Goodhart Professor of European History at Bryn Mawr College. Her most recent publications include the collections Written on the Body (Princeton) and Nazism, Fascism, and the Working Class. John Torpey is Associate Professor of Sociology and European Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He is the author of The Invention of the Passport and Intellectuals, Socialism, and Dissent.

From the Back Cover

"Documenting Individual Identity is a distinguished collection that opens up a new area of historical and sociological inquiry. On almost every topic the authors have thought widely and deeply, and they back up their general points with interesting, detailed research."--Theodore Porter, University of California at Los Angeles

"Overall, the essays in this book show the increased rigidity of formal documents and control over the individual, the discrimination between the citizen and the foreigner, and increased categorization of the individual in general. Many of them contain nuggets of stories, descriptions, or analytical observations which make the reading rewarding in unexpected ways."--Elazar Barkan, Claremont Graduate University

From the Inside Flap

"Documenting Individual Identity is a distinguished collection that opens up a new area of historical and sociological inquiry. On almost every topic the authors have thought widely and deeply, and they back up their general points with interesting, detailed research."--Theodore Porter, University of California at Los Angeles

"Overall, the essays in this book show the increased rigidity of formal documents and control over the individual, the discrimination between the citizen and the foreigner, and increased categorization of the individual in general. Many of them contain nuggets of stories, descriptions, or analytical observations which make the reading rewarding in unexpected ways."--Elazar Barkan, Claremont Graduate University

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691009112
• ISBN 13: 9780691009117
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 426