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, Gérard 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.
