Camps: A Global History of Mass Confinement

“Camps is far more than a global history of mass confinement. In carefully drawn case studies, it exposes modernity’s condition of possibility in various carceral regimes that isolated and exploited dangerous – or potentially dangerous – groups. Whether by eliminating threats or reforming citizens, practices of coerced confinement made the modern world. A must-read.” A. Dirk Moses, Anne and Bernard Spitzer Chair in International Relations, City College of New York, and author of The Problems of Genocide

“Camps is a pioneering work not only because of its truly sweeping perspective on the camp as the quintessential form of coerced settlement in the modern age, but also because Forth shows the mutual relevance of seemingly disconnected developments. Forth introduced me to much new material and, more importantly, forced me to rethink some of my basic assumptions.” Robert Jan van Pelt, University Professor, School of Architecture, University of Waterloo, and author of The Case for Auschwitz and The Barrack: 1572–1914