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Mettray is among the leading books on the subject of youth, penal institutions, and gender. Exploiting the rich, recently released trove of documentation chronicling the history of the institution, Toth reveals how the utopian expectations of its planners foundered in myriad ways. -- Robert Nye, Oregon State University, editor of <I>Sexuality</I> Toth has had access to an extraordinary archive-the actual daily records of life in Mettray, the original colony for juvenile delinquents in France. As such, his book is the first to use the voices of the inmates themselves, as well as the detailed records of the most important penal institution of its time. This is ground-breaking analysis. -- Barbara Arneil, University of British Columbia, author of <I>Domestic Colonies</I> While Foucault famously called attention to carceral institutions and their effort to create 'docile bodies,' Toth looks at how those efforts actually worked. He shows how discipline both functioned and failed to function, and how prisoners resisted. Based on exemplary archival research, Mettray evokes the experience of inmates with real depth. -- Clifford Rosenberg, City College of New York, author of<I> Policing Paris</I>

While Foucault famously called attention to carceral institutions and their effort to create 'docile bodies,' Toth looks at how those efforts actually worked. He shows how discipline both functioned and failed to function, and how prisoners resisted. Based on exemplary archival research, Mettray evokes the experience of inmates with real depth. -- Clifford Rosenberg, City College of New York, author of<I> Policing Paris</I> Toth has had access to an extraordinary archive-the actual daily records of life in Mettray, the original colony for juvenile delinquents in France. As such, his book is the first to use the voices of the inmates themselves, as well as the detailed records of the most important penal institution of its time. This is ground-breaking analysis. -- Barbara Arneil, University of British Columbia, author of <I>Domestic Colonies</I> Mettray is among the leading books on the subject of youth, penal institutions, and gender. Exploiting the rich, recently released trove of documentation chronicling the history of the institution, Toth reveals how the utopian expectations of its planners foundered in myriad ways. -- Robert Nye, Oregon State University, editor of <I>Sexuality</I>

Mettray is a model for those interested in studying youth incarceration, gender, and sexuality. I anticipate that many graduate classes on modern history, especially the history of gender and sexuality, will adopt this work for discussion in graduate seminars. * Journal of Social History * Mettray undertakes quite an extensive exploration of the rich archive of this significant institution [a] most engaging history. * French History * Toth immerses his reader in a micro-history based on a rich bibliography and, above all, by an exhaustive examination of the archives of the penal colony of Mettray As [he] shows, what began as a resolutely utopian project that emerged from an optimistic representation of juvenile delinquents by reformers in the first half of the nineteenth century was marked by a slow drift towards a strictly authoritarian and punitive model. * International Review of Social History *

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Stephen A. Toth is Associate Professor of Modern European History at Arizona State University. The primary focus of his research examines the history of incarceration, most particularly the evolution of the prison in theory and practice, in modern France and the Francophone world. He is the author of Beyond Papillon and numerous scholarly articles. He has been the recipient of research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Philosophical Society.

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