Demonised by the media and persecuted for hundreds of years Roma communities are among the most persecuted groups in Europe. Based on real accounts of the struggles faced by Roma communities this well researched and informative book argues that little has been done to identify the root causes of anti-Roma discrimination. McGarry shows that the origins of this discrimination are to be found in the early history of the European nation state, and the ways in which the Roma, as landless 'nomads', have been excluded from national communities founded upon a notion of 'belonging' to a particular territory.