Citizenship and identity provide the focus for this collection of original essays from a group of theoretically innovative historians and social scientists. The volume explores the competing and sometimes conflicting roles of citizenship and identity, be it racial, class, ethnic or other, in popular politics. The concept of citizenship is also examined. All essays are historically and comparatively grounded. Covering a wide variety of countries, topics covered include: citizenship rights and party-union relations in Western Europe; politics, industrialization, and citizenship; contested citizenship and the dynamics of racial identity; and social movements and nationhood and citizenship in early Meiji 1868–1900.