This book 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 labor 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,
"Documenting Individual Identity" offers the most comprehensive
historical overview of this fascinating topic ever published.
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 benefits and
voting.
Unprecedented in subject and scope, Documenting Individual
Identity promises to shape a whole new field of research that
crosses disciplinary boundaries and is of broad public and academic
significance. In addition to the editors, the contributors are
Valentin Groebner, Gerard Noiriel, Charles Steinwedel, Marc
Garcelon, Jon Agar, Martine Kaluszynski, Peter Becker, Anne Joseph,
Kristin Ruggiero, Andrea Geselle, Andreas Fahrmeier, Leo Lucassen,
Pamela Sankar, David Lyon, Gary Marx, Dita Vogel, and Timothy
Longman."
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