requesting that the bearer be allowed to Book Review enter and traverse a country in furtherance of his lawful pursuits. In 1835, the Identity, Identification, and Membership: Supreme Court in Urtetiqui v. D’Arcy held Review of ‘‘The Passport in America: The that the passport, although identifying its History of a Document’’ by Craig holder as a U.S. citizen, did not constitute Robertson. New York, NY: Oxford legal evidence of citizenship. The court University Press, 2010. characterized the passport as a political document ‘‘addressed to foreign powers; DONALD KERWIN, purporting only to be a request that the Migration Policy Institute bearer of it may pass safely and freely …’’ Until the Civil War, the Secretary of State personally signed passports and, until Craig Robertson’s The Passport in America: the 1840s, most passport applications con- The History of a Document does more than sisted of a personal letter to the Secretary of tell the story of the passport’s emergence as State. The State Department did not issue a reliable identity document. It displays the its first circular on the passport application great immigration themes in U.S. history – process until 1845. In 1846, it set forth the identity, sovereignty, membership, national documents needed to prove identity and security, privacy, federalism, bi-national citizenship. However, only in the last dec- communities, and the attempts of over- ade of the 19th century, did officials begin whelmed government officials to enforce to consistently enforce these requirements. the law – through the lens of the humble In the mid-19th century, the State passport. Robertson details advances in the Department increasingly treated the pass- form and security of the passport, devoting port as a certificate of citizenship, and pass- early chapters to specific features of the doc- port requirements and procedures reflected ument and its ‘‘assembly’’ over time. In the the ideal of a citizen as a White, male, U.S. second part of the book, he recounts the born, property holder.1 In 1856, Congress significant controversies over the federal declared that passports could only be issued government’s attempt to document identity to citizens, and vested the Secretary of State and citizenship through the passport. with sole authority to do so. In the late 19th and early 20th cen- tury, the passport began to assume its role IDENTITY AND as a ‘‘bureaucratic expression’’ of identity. IDENTIFICATION Robertson’s central theme is the way in which the federal government transformed identity from a sense of ‘‘self-awareness’’ In Robertson’s engaging narrative, the established by an individual’s word and modern passport has its roots in the medi- affirmed (if necessary) by his or her local eval ‘‘safe conduct’’ documents that pro- community, to a matter determined by vided safe passage to visiting diplomats the state, proven by standard forms and and the ‘‘king’s license’’ that granted per- processes, and verified by authorized gov- mission to leave a territory. Although the ernment officials. Robertson refers to this Continental Congress authorized the Department of Foreign Affairs to issue passports in 1782, the United States still 1 awarded fewer than 100 passports per year Until World War I, the State Depart- by 1818. Through the first half of the ment issued joint passports to husbands 19th century, passports – like ‘‘safe con- and wives in the full name of the hus- duct’’ documents – took the form of let- band. Until 1922, women lost their U.S. ters from one foreign official to another citizenship by marrying non-citizens.
Identity, Identification, and Membership: Review of The
![Identity, Identification, and Membership: Review of The](http://data.docslib.org/img/378641d8d3403c41c23302c034f94f66-1.webp)