License to Travel: A Cultural History of the Passport

by Patrick Bixby Narrated by Tim Fannon

Overview

Discover the surprising global history of how the passport has shaped art, thought, and human experience to define the modern world.
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.
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 Handynasty China to the passport controls and crowded refugee camps of today.
¿ Connects intimate stories of vulnerability and desire with vivid examples drawn from world cinema, literature, art, philosophy, and politics
¿ Highlights the control that travel documents have over our bodies as we move around the globe.
With unexpected discoveries at every turn, from narrow escapes and new starts, tearful departures and hopeful arrivals, License to Travel shares some of our most memorable experiences involving the passport.

Editorial Reviews

CHOICE

"This readable narrative history will interest all who travel abroad as well as those denied the opportunity."

New York Times

"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."

AFAR Magazine

"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."

Wall Street Journal

"In License to Travel, Bixby explores the passport’s linguistic journey and much else. . . . An impressive survey."

Geography Realm

"Read this book and you’ll never again treat your passport so casually."

LSE Review of Books

"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."

International Migration Review

"Charmingly written. . . . An appealing, accessible, and enlightening choice of reading on this subject."

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175037778
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	10/25/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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