Statelessness: A Modern History

Two world wars left millions stranded in Europe. The collapse of empires and the rise of independent states in the twentieth century produced an unprecedented number of people without national belonging and with nowhere to go.

Following a generation of theorists and practitioners who took up the problem of mass statelessness, Siegelberg weaves together a history of ideas of law and politics, rights and citizenship, with the intimate plight of stateless persons. Drawing on extensive archival research and an innovative approach to the history of international order, Siegelberg explores how and why the rise and fall of statelessness in modern thought compels a new understanding of the historical relationship between states and citizens, empires and states, and of the legitimation of the territorial state against alternative forms of political organization in the twentieth century.