The Society of Prisoners

Anglo-French Wars and Incarceration in the Eighteenth Century

Bibliographic Data

ID23242575
AuthorsRenaud Morieux (0000-0002-1759-5747, University of Cambridge, corresponding author)
Year2019
Pages464
Publication date2019-10-03
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueSociety of Prisoners (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University PressOxford (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/oso/9780198723585.001.0001
OpenAlexW2991308350
Open LibraryOL28728285M
ISBN9780198723585
LanguageEN
Citations received11

War captivity is an ideal observatory to address three interrelated questions. First, I argue that in order to understand what a prisoner of war was in the eighteenth century, from a legal viewpoint, we must forget what we know about this notion, as it has been shaped by twentieth-century international conventions. In the eighteenth century, the distinction between a prisoner of war, a hostage, a criminal and a slave was not always clear-cut, in theory and even more so in practice. Second, war captivity tells us something important about the eighteenth-century state, how it transformed itself, and why it endured. The third approach is a social history of international relations. The aim here is to understand how eighteenth-century societies were impacted by war: how the detention of foreign enemies on home soil revealed and challenged social values, representations, hierarchies, and practices. The book’s argument hinges on the experience of prisoners of war as the pivot of social relations within and outside the prison, between Britons and French and between prisoners and host communities. War does not simply destroy society, but it also creates new sorts of social ties.The book addresses a wide range of topics, such as the ethics of war, philanthropy, forced migrations, the sociology of the prison and the architecture of detention places. One of its strengths is the sheer magnitude and diversity of the archival material used, in English and in French, most of which have been little explored by other historians.

Criminology · Political science · Sociology · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · European Political History Analysis · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · 1755-1763 · 1793-1802 · Anglo-french war · Anglo-French War (1755-1763) fast (OCoLC)fst00808940 (uri) http://id.worldcat.org/fast/fst00808940 · Anglo-French War (1793-1802) fast (OCoLC)fst00808948 (uri) http://id.worldcat.org/fast/fst00808948 · France · Great britain · Military · Military history · Prisoners and prisons · Prisoners of war · Social aspects

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