Through a detailed account of the West German census controversies of the 1980s, this book offers a robust and geographical sense of what effective 'resistance' and 'empowerment' might mean in an age when the intensification of 'surveillance society' appears to render us ever more passive and incapable of controlling our own registration.

Through a detailed account of the West German census controversies of the 1980s, this book offers a robust and geographical sense of what effective 'resistance' and 'empowerment' might mean in an age when the intensification of 'surveillance society' appears to render us ever more passive and incapable of controlling our own registration.

Matthew Hannah's book focuses on late nineteenth-century America, the period of transformation which followed the Civil War and gave birth to the twentieth century. This was a time of industrialization and urbanization. Immigration was on the increase and traditional hierarchies were being challenged. Using a combination of empirical and theoretical material, Hannah explores the modernization of the American federal government during this period. Discussions of gender, race and colonial knowledge engage with Foucault's ideas on 'governmentality'. The empirical strands of the narrative surround the career and writing of Francis A. Walker. A hugely influential figure at that time, Walker was Director of the 1870 and 1880 US censuses, Commissioner of Indian affairs and a prominent political economist and educator. Through an analysis of his work, Hannah enriches previous interpretations of the period, demonstrating that the modernization of the American national state was a thoroughly spatial and explicitly geographical project.

Late nineteenth-century America was a time of industrialization and urbanization. Immigration was increasing and traditional hierarchies were being challenged. Combining empirical and theoretical material, Hannah explores the modernization of the American federal government during this period. Discussions of gender, race and colonial knowledge engage with Foucault's ideas on "governmentality." Through an analysis of the work of Francis A. Walker, a prominent political economist and educator of the time, the author demonstrates that the modernization of the American national state was a thoroughly spatial and explicitly geographical project.