The Birth Certificate

“Absorbing. . . . An accessible, lively study of how a now-standard record came about.”—Kirkus Reviews

“This impeccable and captivating work of historical scholarship will appeal to any historian of the postbellum United States, but particularly to social historians, intellectual historians, and historians of science and technology. . . . In The Birth Certificate, Pearson brilliantly weaves together a variety of archival sources to elucidate the intersection between lived experience, state bureaucracy, and systems of epistemic authority.”—Journal of Interdisciplinary History>

“Richly researched, beautifully written. . . . [A] crucial historical analysis of the vital bureaucratic document that establishes American identity.”—American Journal of Legal History

“A crucial contribution to the study of age as a category of analysis.... Pearson’s work will be thought provoking for scholars and students alike.”—Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth

“An exceedingly fine book, deeply and impressively researched, excavating a story that modern American historians simply did not know until now.... The scholarship is stellar: both thorough and thoroughly digested. And Pearson’s discoveries about the part the birth certificate has played in American political, social, and organizational life are stunning.”—Sarah E. Igo, author of The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America

“This is an engaging and original book, interweaving social and political history to tell the story of a small document with a big impact on American life. What really stands out is the discussion of race—and how birth registration was not a neutral policy but one used to enforce the racial caste system in the U.S. for both African Americans and Native Americans.”—Lynn Weiner, author of From Working Girl to Working Mother: The Female Labor Force in the United States, 1820–1980