The Sovereign Citizen Denaturalization and the Origins of the American Republic

"In vividly depicting the long struggle to secure the citizenship rights of Americans, Weil treats us to striking insights as well as delicious tidbits of newly discovered data."-Norman Dorsen, former President of the American Civil Liberties Union "One of the world's leading experts on nationality brilliantly explores past campaigns to strip Americans of their citizenship. Patrick Weil reveals how both bureaucratic rigor and national security zeal threatened citizenship rights, and points to important lessons for twenty-first century debates."-Gerald Neuman, Harvard Law School "In this masterful and timely book, Patrick Weil plunges deep into rarely used archives to write a new history of the shaping of American identity in the twentieth century, all the more important as we now debate the reform of immigration law. This story of belonging and exile has its heroes-defenders of civil liberties who deserve to be better known-and its scoundrels. Unlike many histories, it has a heartening conclusion."-Linda K. Kerber, author of No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship