Kees Boersma is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the VU University Amsterdam, Department of Organization Sciences. His current research is about safety, security and surveillance. He is group leader of AREA (Amsterdam Research on Emergency Administration).

Rosamunde van Brakel has Master degrees in criminology and educational sciences and is currently a PhD candidate at the research group of Law, Science, Technology and Society Studies at the Free University of Brussels. Her research investigates the social, ethical and legal consequences of pre-emptive surveillance of children.

Chiara Fonio (PhD in Sociology and Methodology of the Social Research) is a researcher in Sociology at the Catholic University of Milan. Her research interests range from the history of surveillance to the securitization of mega-events and the impact of CCTV within urban contexts.

Pieter Wagenaar is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration in the Faculty of Social Sciences, VU University Amsterdam. He has published on a range of topics concerning the informatization of public administration and the history of public administration.

1. Introduction. Histories of State Surveillance in Europe and Beyond, Kees Boersma, Rosamunde van Brakel, Chiara Fonio and Pieter Wagenaar Part I Theory and Perspectives 2. Further thoughts on The Information State in England ... since 1500, Edward Higgs 3. Situating Surveillance: History, Technology, Culture, David Lyon Part II Big brother surveillance in the 20th century in different countries 4. A Brief History of the Anticommunist Surveillance in Greece and its Lasting Impact, Minas Samatas 5. Aspiring to modernization. Historical evolution and current trends of state surveillance in Portugal, Helena Machado and Catarina Frois 6. Controversial legacies in post-Fascist Italy, Chiara Fonio and Stefano Agnoletto 7. Surveillance, Lustration and the Open Society: Poland and Eastern Europe, Ola Svenonius, Fredrika Björklund, and Pawel Waszkiewicz 8. Brazilian universities under surveillance: information control during the Military Dictatorship (1964-1985), Ricardo Medeiros Pimenta and Lucas Melgaço Part III ID-Cards as a surveillance method to govern societies 9. Spain's Documento Nacional de Identidad. An e-ID for the 21st Century with a controversial past, Gemma Galdon-Clavell and Pablo Ouziel 10. Policy windows for surveillance: the phased introduction of the identification card in the Netherlands since the early twentieth century, Friso Roest, Johan van Someren, Miek Wijnberg, Kees Boersma and Pieter Wagenaar 11. The emergence of the identity card in Belgium and its colonies, Rosamunde van Brakel and Xavier Van Kerckhoven 12. Available, Necessary or Unwanted: National Registration, Surveillance, Conscription and Governance in Wartime Canada 1914-1947, Scott Thompson 13. From surveillance-by-design to privacy-by-design: Evolving identity policy in the United Kingdom, Edgar A. Whitley, Aaron K. Martin, Gus Hosein Afterword: Conceptual Matters: The Ordering of Surveillance, Gary Marx.