"In this insightful, carefully documented, and analytically astute account, Torpey has laid out for us with elegance and clarity the history of the passport and the 'revolution identificatiore' of which it is an integral part. His theoretically sensitive treatment is essential to our understanding of the modern state system. What Torpey has accomplished here is to have denaturalized, by close historical analysis, the utterly taken-for-granted, contemporary regime of passports." James C. Scott, Journal of Modern History
"With the world awash in refugees, immigrants, "guest workers," travelers, and the occasional terrorist, an interpretive study of identity papers and passports is certainly timely....The historical sociologist John Torpey is well equipped to address these issues. By training he is equally respectful of historical detail and nuance and of the interpretive arguments in contemporary social science. . . His canvas is wide and does ample justice to his subject." Isser Woloch, The American Historical Review
"No abstract sociological text, this work is notable for its absence of jargon and its solid grounding in historical fact." Library Journal
"...thoughtful and imaginative book on passports and the controls effected by them... The ingenuity of this book is evident in the focus on the passport." James B. Rule, Contemporary Sociology
"Torpey's book...is an academic study, covering the legal history of the passport in Europe and the United states." The Dallas Morning News
"It cannot be emphasized too strongly that Torpey has written the first modern account of the invention and evolution of passports and their uses, and has therby opened up entirely new vistas for future research and debate.... there can be no doubt about the validity of his penetrating analysis as a whole, which makes this book a truly remarkable achievement." The International History Review
"In this groundbreaking exploration of the passport's vicissitudes from the French Revolution to the present time, Torpey argues convincingly that the passport is important to our understanding of the nature of the state and the state system." American Journal of Sociology
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