Empire and Underworld: Captivity in French Guiana
Miranda Spieler
The French Revolution invented the notion of the citizen, but it also invented the noncitizen—the person whose rights were nonexistent. The South American outpost of Guiana became a depository for these outcasts of the new French citizenry, and an experimental space for the exercise of new kinds of power and violence against marginal groups.
Award History
1 wins · 1 total
| Award | Year | Result | Category / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Historical Association Book Prizes: George L. Mosse Prize in European Intellectual and Cultural History | 2013 | Winner | Official source |
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies
This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.
01 Central figures
None extracted with sufficient confidence.
02 Central places
- French Guiana90%
03 Suggested argument
After the French Revolution, noncitizens’ rights vanished, and French Guiana became a depository for these outcasts where new forms of power and violence were experimentally applied to marginal groups.
Model confidence 72%
04 Reading orientation
70 / 100 academicAcademic
An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.
Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 86%.