The Colonial Bastille

About the Book

Peter Zinoman's original and insightful study focuses on the colonial prison system in French Indochina and its role in fostering modern political consciousness among the Vietnamese. Using prison memoirs, newspaper articles, and extensive archival records, Zinoman presents a wealth of significant new information to document how colonial prisons, rather than quelling political dissent and maintaining order, instead became institutions that promoted nationalism and revolutionary education.

About the Author

Peter Zinoman is Associate Professor of Southeast Asian History at the University of California, Berkeley.

Reviews

"Zinoman makes original contributions on multiple fronts, including colonial systems; prisons as social institutions; political life in prison; public campaigns concerning prisons; and released prisoners in action. He also takes us beyond the colonial/anticolonial, nationalist/communist, and war/peace dichotomies that have long dominated Vietnam studies."—David Marr, author of Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920-1945

"This is a wonderful, lucidly argued, and meticulously documented book."—Ann Stoler, author of Race and the Education of Desire: Foucault's History of Sexuality and the Colonial Order of Things

Acknowledgments
List of Maps and Tables
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Origins of the Ill-Disciplined Prison
2. The System: Fragmented Order and Integrative Dynamics
3. The Regime: Surveillance, Forced Labor, and Total Care
4. Prisoners and Prison Society
5. Colonial Prisons in Revolt, 1862 - 1930
6. The Thai Nguyen Rebellion
7. Prison Cells and Party Cells: The Indochinese Communist Party in Prison, 1930 - 1936
8. Prisons and the Colonial Press, 1933 - 1939
9. The Prisoner Released
Epilogue
Glossary
Select Bibliography
Index

Awards

Harry J. Benda Prize for 2003, Southeast Asia Council of the Associaiton for Asian Studies
2001 John K. Fairbank Prize, American Historical Association