Passports for an Imagined Nation

Borders Books

Some recommendations from the Republic of Letters.

Issue 59: Letters + The Internet Speaks

No border can contain our subscribers’ enthusiasm.

Jacobin Turns 15

Here’s why we still publish.

On Allies, Appropriate Words for Genocide, and How DSA Runs NYC

On Mamdani, Muhammad, and the Next 9/11

Passports for Sale

A growing number of states are willing to sell citizenship and the privileges it brings — if you can afford to pay. The lucrative trade in “golden passports” exposes the dark side of capitalist globalization and its unequal valuation of human life.

Issue 59: Misery Index

Crunching the numbers on the class war.

Nativism vs. the Bottom Line

While the Trump administration’s draconian immigration policies may hurt businesses reliant on undocumented labor, the fractured capitalist class won’t stand up to the president.

Civic Nationalism Is Worth Defending

J. D. Vance has attacked birthright citizenship and equality before the law by claiming that “America is not an idea.” But the realization of the idea of civic nationalism has been our greatest achievement.

The Red Scare Blueprint

A 1917 effort to deport political radicals from Seattle became the model for all 20th-century deportation crusades.

Walter Benjamin’s Graveyard

On the run from the Gestapo, Walter Benjamin committed suicide on the French-Spanish border in 1940. The place where he spent his last days now overlooks the most brutally policed border of the EU.

Building Civilization at Shenzhen Speed

Once the poorer neighbor of Hong Kong, Shenzhen has been transformed into a showcase for the speed, power, and dynamism of Chinese development — and a study in extreme inequality.

Partisans on Ponies

One German’s idiosyncratic obsession with the American frontier led to an unlikely West German–Yugoslav cinematic partnership that fed the European appetite for cowboys and Indians.

Orson Welles, South of the Border

After his post–Citizen Kane slump, Orson Welles teamed up with Universal for a big Hollywood comeback about corrupt police on the US-Mexico border. The executives balked at his vision — but today Touch of Evil is regarded as Welles’s final masterpiece.

Deportation as Class Strategy

Mass deportations may hurt big business and working people alike. But Donald Trump is betting that the fallout will hit Democrats harder — and cement a lasting right-wing majority.

The Borderland Where Fascism Learned to Rule

Italian Fascists honed their ideology in Venezia Giulia, fusing anti-Slavic racism with anti-communist repression.

Welcome to Canada. Here’s Your Tuition Invoice.

Canada turned its campuses into immigration gateways, cashing in on students from abroad. The backlash is reshaping the country’s politics.

The Other Conflict in Kashmir

The contested region has become a flash point in India’s struggle to break its dependence on Chinese lithium.

The Invisible Kuwaitis

Kuwait systematically denies citizenship to a population that has lived there since before the state existed.