Departing for a new life far away; fleeing from the dangers, the restrictions, or just the mundanity of familiar surroundings; enduring unwanted scrutiny in the backrooms of officialdom: some of the most dramatic scenes of a life story involve a passport. By examining the travel documents of artists, intellectuals, ancient messengers, and modern migrants, License to Travel tells how these seemingly humble documents also implicate us -- our emotions and imaginings -- in some of the most sweeping transformations of human history: the emergence of the nation-state, of international relations, of government surveillance, of refugee crises, and of our global interconnectedness.