License to Travel

A Cultural History of the Passport

Patrick Bixby

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Hardback

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English

California Uni Pr Trade
22 December 2022

History; General & world history; History of the Americas; Migration, immigration & emigration; Globalization; Civil rights & citizenship

This surprising global history of an indispensable document reveals how the passport has shaped art, thought, and human experience while helping to define the modern world.

Narrow escapes and new starts, tearful departures and hopeful arrivals, unwanted scrutiny in the backrooms of officialdom: some of our most memorable experiences involve a passport. In License to Travel, Patrick Bixby examines the passports of artists and intellectuals, ancient messengers and modern migrants to reveal how these seemingly humble documents implicate us in larger narratives about identity, mobility, citizenship, and state authority.

This concise cultural history takes the reader on a captivating journey from pharaonic Egypt and Han-dynasty China to the passport controls and crowded refugee camps of today. Along the way, the book connects intimate stories of vulnerability and desire with vivid examples drawn from world cinema, literature, art, philosophy, and politics, highlighting the control that travel documents have over our bodies as we move around the globe. With unexpected discoveries at every turn, License to Travel exposes the passport as both an instrument of personal freedom and a tool of government surveillance powerful enough to define our very humanity.

By: Patrick Bixby
Imprint: California Uni Pr Trade
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 210mm, Width: 140mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 408g
ISBN: 9780520375857
ISBN 10: 0520375858
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 22 December 2022
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

"List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: ""The Most Precious Book I Possess"" Part One: A Prehistory of the Passport as We Know It 1 • Ancient Bodies, Ancient Citizens 2 • Great Sovereigns, Grand Tourists 3 • Modern Bodies, Modern Citizens Part Two: The Advent of the Passport as We Know It 4 • Modernists and Militants Part Three: The Passport as We Know It 5 • Expelled and Stateless 6 • Migrants and Marxists 7 • Alien and Indigenous Epilogue: Good Passports Bad Passports Notes Index"

Patrick Bixby is Associate Professor of English at Arizona State University. His books include Unaccompanied Traveler: The Writings of Kathleen M. Murphy.

Reviews for License to Travel: A Cultural History of the Passport

"""In License to Travel, Bixby explores the passport’s linguistic journey and much else. . . . An impressive survey."" * Wall Street Journal * ""A comprehensive, insightful history. . . . Bixby offers up a formidable survey of this everyday artifact and how it defines individuals and affords varying degrees of privilege and freedom, depending on one’s place of birth."" * New York Times * ""Neatly lays out the mighty power of the passport and the pains of passport inequality. . . . With License to Travel, Bixby also makes the argument that applying and carrying a passport is not just an administrative hoop that travelers must jump through: Having a passport gives us the freedom to travel—and the freedom to thrive."" * AFAR Magazine * ""Read this book and you’ll never again treat your passport so casually."" * Geography Realm * ""Bixby offers a new cultural history of the passport, exploring its pre-history, emergence and its current status today. This beautifully written and accessible book will be a great introduction for people wanting to learn more about passports and their politics of inclusion and exclusion."" * LSE Review of Books *"