Susan J. Pearson, The Birth Certificate

In the modern United States, few pieces of bureaucratic paperwork spark as much controversy as the birth certificate. In recent years, this seemingly straightforward form has become the center of political and popular attention in examples ranging from trumped-up accusations about Barack Obama’s birthplace to administrative reform efforts led by transgender Americans seeking to change their gender markers. Yet despite the attention it draws, the birth certificate has largely evaded scrutiny from historians. But no longer. The complex history of the birth certificate and the secrets of statecraft it hides in plain sight are on brilliant display in Susan J Pearson’s richly researched, beautifully written, and aptly titled The Birth Certificate: An American History. Pearson’s research—conducted in no fewer than 22 local, state, federal, and private archives—supplies a crucial historical analysis of the vital bureaucratic document that establishes American identity, and, we learn, deeply entrenched mechanisms and patterns of social inequality. Through eight chapters organized in three chronological parts, readers encounter a detailed account of the political and legal construction of the birth certificate and gain an understanding of how this piece of paper, composed of simple black lines, white spaces, and yes/no check boxes came to carry tremendous ‘social and legal value’ (226). Indeed, it serves—or does not serve—as the ticket to full citizenship. The birth certificate, Pearson makes clear, is a critical document through which scholars may apprehend the constantly changing nature and limitations of American citizenship itself, across the 200-year time span the book covers

Birth certificate · Bureaucracy · Citizenship · Political science · Politics · Scrutiny · Sociology · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Demography · Gender Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law