Introduction : "The most precious book I possess" -- A pre-history of the passport as we know it -- The advent of the passport as we know it -- A history of the passport as we know it -- Epilogue : "Good passports bad passports"

"Departing for a new life far away; fleeing from the dangers, the restrictions, or just the mundanity of familiar surroundings; enduring unwanted scrutiny in the backrooms of officialdom: some of the most dramatic scenes of a life story involve a passport. By examining the travel documents of artists, intellectuals, ancient messengers, and modern migrants, License to Travel tells how these seemingly humble documents also implicate us--our emotions and imaginings--in some of the most sweeping transformations of human history: the emergence of the nation-state, of international relations, of government surveillance, of refugee crises, and of our global interconnectedness"--