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Why some of the most vulnerable communities in Europe, from independent cities to new monarchies, welcomed refugees during the Age of Revolutions and prospered   “Janet Polasky unearths an unappreciated history of the experience of asylum in Europe and the United States since the Age of the Democratic Revolutions. Facing squarely the destruction of asylum in our own time, she ends with a stunningly optimistic vision of a path toward its reconstruction.”—Linda K. Kerber, author of No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies   Driven from their homelands, refugees from ancient times to the present have sought asylum in worlds turned upside down. Theirs is an age‑old story. So too are the solutions to their plight.   In the wake of the American and French Revolutions, thousands of men and women took to the roads and waterways on both sides of the Atlantic—refugees in search of their inalienable rights. Although larger nations fortified their borders and circumscribed citizenship, two port cities, German Hamburg and Danish Altona, opened their doors, as did the federated Swiss cantons and the newly independent Belgian monarchy. The refugees thrived and the societies that harbored them prospered. The United States followed, not only welcoming waves of immigrants in the mid‑nineteenth century but offering them citizenship as well.   In this remarkable story of the first modern refugee crisis, historian Janet Polasky shows how open doors can be a viable alternative to the building of border walls.

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Janet Polasky unearths an unappreciated history of the experience of asylum in Europe and the United States since the Age of the Democratic Revolutions. Facing squarely the destruction of asylum in our own time, she ends with a stunningly optimistic vision of a path toward its reconstruction. -Linda K. Kerber, author of No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies Janet Polasky not only expertly depicts the life of French emigres in the cosmopolitan cities of Hamburg and Altona during the Revolution, but she explores the asylum dilemmas that confront the world today. -Kirsty Carpenter, Massey University Janet Polasky weaves a compelling history from the human experiences of political refugees who found temporary welcomes in the 'small spaces' of European states, in port cities, in Brussels, and the Swiss cantons. Her stylish prose deftly captures a historical moment suspended between Enlightenment cosmopolitanism and emergent nationalism. -Mary Lindemann, University of Miami

Janet Polasky unearths an unappreciated history of the experience of asylum in Europe and the United States since the Age of the Democratic Revolutions. Facing squarely the destruction of asylum in our own time, she ends with a stunningly optimistic vision of a path toward its reconstruction. -Linda K. Kerber, author of No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies

“Janet Polasky unearths an unappreciated history of the experience of asylum in Europe and the United States since the Age of the Democratic Revolutions. Facing squarely the destruction of asylum in our own time, she ends with a stunningly optimistic vision of a path toward its reconstruction.”—Linda K. Kerber, author of No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies “Janet Polasky not only expertly depicts the life of French émigrés in the cosmopolitan cities of Hamburg and Altona during the Revolution, but she explores the asylum dilemmas that confront the world today.”—Kirsty Carpenter, Massey University “Janet Polasky weaves a compelling history from the human experiences of political refugees who found temporary welcomes in the ‘small spaces’ of European states, in port cities, in Brussels, and the Swiss cantons. Her stylish prose deftly captures a historical moment suspended between Enlightenment cosmopolitanism and emergent nationalism.”—Mary Lindemann, University of Miami

Author Information

Janet Polasky is Presidential Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire. She is the author of six books, including Revolutions without Borders: The Call to Liberty in the Atlantic World. She lives in Portsmouth, NH.

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