Upcoming Book from The Johns Hopkins University Press:

France and the American Tropics to 1700: Tropics of Discontent?

The first comprehensive account of colonization and French society in the Caribbean redefines the French colonial project and sheds new light on the early transatlantic world.

Describing the geography, topography, climate, and flora and fauna of the region, Philip P. Boucher recreates the tropical environment in which colonists and indigenous peoples interacted. He then examines the lives and activities of the region's inhabitants---the indigenous Island Caribs, landowning settlers, indentured servants, African slaves, and people of mixed blood, the gens de couleur. He argues that the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were not merely a prelude to the classic plantation regime model, but were, rather, an era presenting a whole variety of possible outcomes. This original narrative demonstrates that the transition to sugar and the plantation complex was more gradual in the French properties than generally depicted-and was not inevitable. Visit the JHU Press website to learn more and purchase this book.

Reviews

"Boucher presents a judicious mix of political narrative history and an economic, social, and cultural analysis of the Caribbean social and racial groups -- Europeans, Caribs (the original inhabitants), and the African slaves. The book is an important contribution to the history of the Caribbean and to the growing field of comparative Atlantic Empires." -- Robert Forster, The Johns Hopkins University

"A serious, richly detailed scholarly study that has an important place in the historiography of slavery." -- Bernard Moitt, World Sugar History Newsletter Read More

"An important addition to the literature on Caribbean history and colonial societies in the 17th century." -- Choice

"Boucher writes with full sensitivity to the complex religious politics of France and Europe... fine book." -- J. R. McNeill, Journal of American History

"France and the American Tropics to 1700 draws on its author's lifelong study of France in America. It offers an authoritative and readable account of the period which is sure to become recognised as the standard work on the subject in English. It is a very valuable contribution to the historiography of the Caribbean." -- Peter Hulme, Society for Carribean Historical Review, reviewing a previous edition or volume Read More

"This book is a rich -- indeed invaluable -- resource, one which will hopefully spur on a new generation of historians to wander back into this fascinating and startling period of encounter, devastation, change, and creation." -- Laurent Dubois, H—France Read More

"A number of strengths are evident in this book. Boucher is at his best narrating the Caribs in their glory and gradual demise and the political history of French colonization... forms a fundamental and reliable entry to the political establishment of French colonization in the Antilles and Guiana." -- Sue Peabody, Slavery and Abolition Read More

About Philip P. Boucher, Ph.D.

Born in Hartford, CT. July 22, 1944 to Albert and Loretta Boucher, Dr. Boucher graduated from the University of Hartford in 1966. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut under Edmund (Tedd) Dickerman and graduated in 1974. The dissertation title is "France 'Discovers' America.

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