The Birth Certificate, Susan J. Pearson
The Birth Certificate, Susan J. Pearson
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The Birth Certificate
An American History

Author: Susan J. Pearson

Narrator: Laural Merlington

Unabridged: 15 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/30/2022


Synopsis

For many Americans, the birth certificate is a mundane piece of paper, unearthed from deep storage when applying for a driver's license, verifying information for new employers, or claiming state and federal benefits. Yet as Donald Trump and his fellow "birthers" reminded us when they claimed that Barack Obama wasn't an American citizen, it plays a central role in determining identity and citizenship.

In The Birth Certificate: An American History, award-winning historian Susan J. Pearson traces the document's two-hundred-year history to explain when, how, and why birth certificates came to matter so much in the United States. Deftly weaving together social, political, and legal history, The Birth Certificate is a fascinating biography of a piece of paper that grounds our understanding of how those who live in the United States are considered Americans.

About Susan J. Pearson

Susan J. Pearson is associate professor of history at Northwestern University and the author of The Rights of the Defenseless: Protecting Animals and Children in Gilded Age America.


Reviews

4.5, rounded to 5 (I really liked this, but I also recognize it's very much an academic book, which is how humanities tend to publish things- definitely on the drier side than other history of things books). The birth certificate is one of those documents you can assume has existed in some form or a......more

Would have been more convincing if I had ever needed my birth certificate for anything......more

Goodreads review by Mark

If you are interested in this subject, this book is great. Includes discussion of the role of the birth certificate in anti-child labor advocacy, the white supremacist agenda, and civil rights efforts. (Walter Ashby Plecker, Virginia’s vital statistics registrar from 1912-1946, was a very bad man. A......more