Friday, September 6, 2013

Barreyre reviews Weil, "The Sovereign Citizen"

Earlier this year we noted the release of Patrick Weil, The Sovereign Citizen: Denaturalization and the Origins of the American Republic (Penn Press, 2012). Books&Ideas.Net has just published a thoughtful review, by Nicolas Barreyre (L'École des hautes études en sciences sociales), translated by Nicole Forstenzer. Here's a taste:
Sometimes the narrow end of things provides the best perspective. At times, the fringe or the borderline case sheds more light on a notion than facing it squarely. This is what Patrick Weil does in his latest work. Through the analysis of a rather recent and rare phenomenon—the loss of nationality—he offers a new vision of citizenship, a central notion in American history already addressed in an extensive historiography. [footnote omitted]
Read on here.