Book 17 toppled – a history of a travel document, journeys and safe passage

I very much enjoy reading microhistories. That is, books about a very small detail in history which is often something we haven’t thought about. The Passport by Martin Lloyd is a good example of this type of book, which is why I bought it originally. I had expected it to be fascinating and I am delighted to say that it was. The copy I have is a small hardback book with many illustrations printed on good quality paper. I picked it up from a second hand bookshop somewhere, although I cannot now remember exactly where.

The author tells the story of a document we take mostly for granted. He tells us about the very first passports which were chiselled onto stone tablets and were more of a letter desiring safe transit for the traveller. By the beginning of the twentieth century British passports still didn’t have a photograph of the holder and they allowed his, and it was usually a him, to be accompanied by a wife and servants who weren’t even named. Some passports were used internally within countries and people could not travel away from their home without them. For many years a passport could only be issued if you knew someone important personally. The author also talks about letters of safe passage and other documents which have operated in the same way as the passport as well as all the different types of passport that exist within Britain.

The book is British focussed but the author also tells us about the passports the United Nations issued after WW1 for people who were essentially stateless and which were instigated by a Scandinavian polar explorer whose name they bore. There are lots of examples in the book of countries which issued passports in different ways and the author also tells us how they became more uniform and how they are forged/counterfeited. There are plenty of real examples of people and events that are passport related including that of one passport that started a war.

This is one of those books that had an interesting fact on every page and which will make you want to read bits out to anyone in the vicinity. I have retained this book on my shelf so that I can enjoy it again in the future. In the meantime I shall never look at my passport in the same way again.