- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Sutton Publishing Ltd; FIRST EDITION edition (3 April 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0750929642
- ISBN-13: 978-0750929646
- Product Dimensions: 20.4 x 16.1 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 570,871 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Synopsis
The passport is one of the most widespread documents in worldwide use. This is the story of the passport, from earliest times to the present day. When the Roman Empire was spread across Europe, those wishing to travel could only do so with the authority of the king or emperor. The passport's power to facilitate passage was, then, embodied in it from the beginning. But it is also connected with territorial and population control by the State. Today, the machine readable passport enables swift checks against lists of names, enabling customs control to sift out undesirables, and the question of identity cards (used throughout continental Europe) is again an issue in British politics. Using individual stories of the use of false passports and secret passage, and revealing the mechanism of the passport system, this book provides an accessible history of this most widespread of documents.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The passport is possibly the most important, and most universal document in the world. People live and die for them and by them, so it's a bit strange to think that they're such a rarely studied subject. This book does a good job from lots of angles, combining amusing anecdotes dredged from the most unlikely places, interesting reproductions of various curiosities, technology etc all woven into the not so straightforward history of the passport and it's significance.
This is not a hardcore history text, nor is it a flimsy "look at what I studied over the holidays" throwaway. It's well thought through (as it should be after multiple decades of experience), structured and entertaining. Perhaps the only thing missing is more current debate around the passports role in social control or freedom, but then I suppose this is not what the book was aiming to do, and would introduce more academic waffle than would be desirable in such a readable book.
I liked it, and I think you'll like it too.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A good general history of travel documents - laissez-passers, safe conducts etc as well as passports - with some interesting insights, told in an amusingly light anecdotal manner. Covers all types of document, up to and including the latest machine-readable passports and electronically encoded data on ID cards; also the ways in which these documents have been (and continue to be) forged and misused, despite ever more sophisticated safeguards. This book covers mainly UK passports and it is fascinating to hear that Victorian Britons thought it scandalous they should have to have a passport at all and complained about the delays in issuing them - 24 hours!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Not just for history buffs, this book covers a lot of anecdotes too, making a very enjoyable read. In a time when fake ID Cards, false passports and illegal immigrants are common words, Martin Lloyd tells you all you need to know about them, how they get caught and how they have led to conflicts in the past.
Would recommend as gift for someone who has everything, and for anyone wanting to learn through a good read.
Would recommend as gift for someone who has everything, and for anyone wanting to learn through a good read.
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