Citizenship, Inequality, and Difference - (Lawrence Stone Lectures) by Frederick Cooper (Paperback)

This comprehensive history of citizenship from ancient Rome to the present day offers a sweeping overview of the complex evolution of citizenship, exploring how political leaders and thinkers have debated the compatibility of cultural diversity and economic inequality with the presumed equivalence of citizens.

The author presents citizenship as "claim-making" - the assertion of rights in a political entity - and examines struggles over citizenship in various empires, including the Spanish, French, British, Ottoman, Russian, Soviet, and American empires.

The book also explores the reconfiguration of citizenship questions after the collapse of empires in Africa and India, and tensions between individualistic and social conceptions of citizenship, as well as between citizenship as an exclusionary notion and flexible and multinational conceptions of citizenship.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the complex history and ongoing debates surrounding citizenship today.