my book is out

and I mean what I write

I like borders.

So begins The Case for Open Borders, published today.

And it’s true — I’m not trying to be cheeky on the page…. I mean what I write: I do like borders. They have played a large part in defining my family and in defining me. I’m drawn to them, I learn from them, and — due to an absolutely unmerited privilege (being born in the United States) — I cross them frequently.

Borders are places of connection, clash, and blend. They define cultures—languages, arts, cuisines, habits—by exhibiting, testing, mingling, and breaking their distinctiveness and insularity. Borders are where humans trade in goods, ideas, and beliefs. They are places of ingenuity, mezcla, neologism, and entrepôt. Borders mark difference and possibility: as sites of beauty and definition, alloy and creation, they spark vibrant and unexpected harmony.

And yet, we have ruined the potential of borders by trying, and failing, to stop some people from crossing them. That failure is key. We have learned for decades, and evidence goes back earlier — centuries, millennia — that people will move when they want to or if they need to. Despite wall, crackdown, or fiat, there’s no stopping it. There’s only one real question to ask, and it’s the question I pose with this book: how do we respond to people on the move?

I also mean something else that I write, which is gleaned from the simple title of the book: erecting and militarizing borders is pushing history backwards, fortified borders are bad and they kill, and borders essentialize, stir hate, stoke fear, and make suffer. And I think we should open them.

Disagree? Give the book a shot. Agree? I offer this as a tool…

Dates/Data

Here’s where you can find the book, if you are so kind or inclined

-Buy directly from Haymarket.

-Go to your local bookstore. If they don’t have it, ask them to order it.

-Go to your local library. If they’re not carrying, ask them to.

-Buy it online from Bookshop or, whatever, buy it from Amazon.

-Listen to it on audiobook.

Here’s where you can find me with the book

-In two days, February 8, I’ll be doing a virtual event with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. You can RSVP here.

-On Valentine’s Day, show your love to your neighbor, and to me, by joining my talk with the Border Community Alliance. Register here.

-I’ll also be presenting at the great Bluestockings bookstore in New York City on March 13 and at Red Emma’s in Baltimore on March 19 and at Antigone Books in Tucson on April 6.

-Reach out to me if you are interested in discussing, hosting a presentation, doing an interview, including in a book club, etc, etc, etc: johnbwashington@gmail.com (If you want proof of my mettle? Catch me talking to Ryan Grim at The Intercept.)

Some nice things people have said about the project:

• "Perhaps the most profound book you’ll read this year.  Washington cleaves through all the cruel obfuscations and militaristic cant that derange our border and immigration politics and offers a better human alternative.  Borders will not save us, or our rapidly broiling planet, but Washington's reportorial courage and ethical clarity just might." —Junot Díaz
  
  "John Washington makes a strong, eloquent and even inspiring case for the relaxation and ultimately the abolition of border controls." —JM Coetzee
  

  "The Case for Open Borders offers an accessible and passionate case against border controls. Highlighting the complex stories and lived experiences of displaced and immobilized migrants in the crosshairs of violent bordering regimes, Washington shows how borders structure global difference across economies and ecosystems and ends with a multi-faceted and air-tight 21 arguments for open borders for people across the political spectrum." —Harsha Walia
  
  "John Washington’s The Case for Open Borders is a compelling, empathetic argument, a far-reaching look into the origins of borders.  Washington is one of our most thoughtful, creative, and humane journalists, and this new work will make people think differently about what they think they already know, about what divides and unites the world in new, surprising ways.  Highly recommended." —Greg Grandin
  
  “John Washington provides us with an essential evidence based, politically sophisticated, and ethically compelling tool to address one of the most important issues of our time.” —Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing
  
  The Case for Open Borders reveals the extent to which today’s global borders have become, at their very core, irredeemably inhumane. Through riveting reporting and wide-ranging citations and case studies, John Washington deconstructs a host of broken metaphors, facile analogies, and fallacious arguments—deconstructing modern notions of scarcity, enforcement, and “order.” This is essential reading, a powerhouse manual for re-imagining a world without walls." —Francisco Cantú, author of The Line Becomes a River
  
  "The Case for Open Borders is an urgently needed and timely appeal for justice for the expanding flows of migrants and refugees falling victim inside a hardened and darkening complex of enforced border walls, perilous waterways, and spirals of razor wire. A fluid blend of historical analysis, investigative journalism, and illustrative storytelling, this book grabs you immediately and turns your attention to these anti-human regimes jutting the global landscape—and won’t let you look away. Read this book that makes the most complete and comprehensive case for opening the borders—and then take action to make it a reality." —Justin Akers Chacón