Herd tells a pre-history of the Hostile Environment, returning to a period, following the Second World War, when the brutal consequences of a politics of expulsion were visible. The book is a deep defence of human rights at a moment when such rights are under attack. It shows how we can resist and think beyond the politics of border and nation.
Writing Against Expulsion in the Post-War World is a lucid and compelling report on the individual at the mercy of the bureaucracy of immigration control, `the geo-political non-person`, and how the condition of this figure relates to the aftermath of the 1939-45 War and the subsequent moment of decolonisation. It takes us through the political, philosophical and literary contexts with fluency, passion and rigour. Its engagement with the texts through which the argument progresses is extensive and thoroughly persuasive, and allows the reader to witness the personal journey Herd himself travelled in understanding the issues that are the subject of this wonderful and important book.
