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.
