The Good Citizen explores how American society came to be what it is today. Over a period of eight years, photographer Benjamin Rasmussen travelled to 43 states and was introduced to over 500 people as he investigated the impact of the country's complex history on contemporary society. In this book, Rasmussen's photographs are combined with essays by Frank H. Wu, and collectively they seek to provoke thought and conversation around the complicated nature of American identity. The book is divided into five chapters—Violence, Exclusion, Archetype, Beauty and Whiteness, and Surveillance. The portraits were simultaneously shot on polaroid and a large-format camera; it was Rasmussen's intent to be collaborative, and the instantaneous nature of the polaroid print allowed those depicted to be part of a conversation about how they were represented. The project untangles the convoluted legal infrastructure behind American citizenship, examining how aspects of whiteness and power remain largely invisible while continuing to shape who belongs and who is excluded.