Laurie M. Wood, "Archipelago of Justice: Law in Frances Early Modern Empire" (Yale UP, 2020)
Historians have long treated the Atlantic and Indian Ocean routes of early modern French empire separately. But, early modern people understood France as a bi-oceanic empire, connected by vast but strong pathways of commercial, intellectual, and legal exchange. Laurie M. Wood\u2019s Archipelago of Justice: Law in France\u2019s Early Modern Empire (Yale UP, 2020)\xa0recasts our view of France\u2019s empire by evaluating the interwoven trajectories of the people, like itinerant ship-workers and colonial magistrates, who built France\u2019s first empire in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in the long eighteenth century. Imperial subjects like these sought political and legal influence via law courts, with strategies that reflected local and regional priorities, especially in regards to slavery, war, and trade. Courts became liaisons between France and new colonial possessions.\nByline: Dr. Julia M. Gossard is assistant professor of history and distinguished assistant professor of honor\u2019s education at Utah State University. A historian of 18th-century France, Julia\u2019s manuscript, Young Subjects, examines children as important actors in social reform, state-building, and imperial projects across the early modern French world. Dr. Gossard is active on Twitter. To learn more about her teaching, research, and experience in digital humanities, visit her website.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law