Spiro, Peter J.: Beyond Citizenship: American Identity after Globalization.

AuthorMyers, Andrew H.
PositionBook review

Spiro, Peter J. Beyond Citizenship: American Identity after Globalization. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. 194 pages. Cloth, $29.95.

"What then is the American?" The naturalized Anglo-American writer J. Hector St. John De Crevecouer posed this question in his 1782 Letters from an American Farmer. (1) Attempts to find an answer have occupied scholars for more than two centuries producing little if any agreement. In Beyond Citizenship: American Identity after Globalization, Peter J. Spiro makes a compelling argument that globalization is rendering the debate moot.

Spiro uses citizenship law as an analytical lens. "Before one asks what it means to be an American," he writes, "one must ask who is an American" (p. 4). Although this tack allows him to avoid direct engagement with Crevecouer, his approach is a refreshing change from the postmodernist theory and literary criticism that presently dominate the field of American Studies. Spiro is a lawyer by training and a law professor by occupation. He has previous experience working for the U.S. Department of State and the National Security Council. His book is a response to debates over immigration that occurred during the presidency of George W. Bush. Seeking to avoid the toxic issue of amnesty for illegal aliens, politicians of this era often framed their rhetoric in terms of citizenship. Spiro argues that such emphasis has become anachronistic. He notes that most countries define citizenship either by jus sanguinis (right of the blood), or jus soli (right of the soil). Diversity and multiple waves of immigration make the former virtually impossible in the United States, so the rules here have tended toward the latter. Although exceptions abound, birth or residence have remained central to establishing American citizenship.

Two factors have eroded this foundation. First, more Americans live abroad. Second, and more significantly, fewer immigrants to the United States aspire to naturalization or assimilation. Non-citizens qualify for public benefits in many states. Aside from the right to vote or the responsibility of jury duty, citizenship confers little more than does a green card. Spiro does an excellent job of anticipating questions that might arise. He points out, for example, that resident aliens have historically been subject to conscription and that status as a citizen ultimately made less of a difference in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks than one might have expected.

The...

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