Review
[A] concise and elegant comparison of the national identities of France and Germany, and the citizenship policies that flow from them...Brubaker's excellent study is the best available guide to the intellectual background of the current crisis in German self-identity. -- Michael Ignatieff New Republic Brubaker's extremely timely book traces the history of citizenship-legal status, heartfelt identity-in France and Germany. Each nation had, and still has, a very different idea of citizenship...Brubaker is erudite and clear, and keeps an acutely open mind-no easy thing in these murky waters. Village Voice Literary Supplement Learned, shrewd, and demanding. Foreign Affairs
Product Description
The difference between French and German definitions of citizenship is instructive - and, for millions of immigrants from North Africa, Turkey, and Eastern Europe, decisive. Rogers Brubaker explores this difference - between the territorial basis of the French citizenry and the German emphasis on blood descent - and shows how it translates into rights and restrictions for millions of would-be French and German citizens.