This book describes, analyses and interprets the topic of citizenship in a global context as it has developed historically, in its variations as a political concept and status, and the ways in which citizens have been and are being educated for that status.
The book provides a historical survey which ranges from the Ancient Greeks to the twentieth century, and reveals the legacies which each era passed on to later centuries. It explains the meaning of citizenship, what political citizenship entails and the nature of citizenship as a status, and also tackles the issue of whether there can be a generally accepted, holistic understanding of the idea.

For this new edition an epilogue has been written which demonstrates the intense nature of the academic and pedagogical debates on the subject as welll as the practical matters relating to the status since 1990.