New College Professor David Harvey Releases New Book on the History of French Colonialism in the Caribbean

SARASOTA, Fla. — Dr. David Allen Harvey, a professor of history and the dean of the Center for the Study of Western Civilization at New College of Florida, will release his latest book, Tropical Despotisms: Enlighted Reform in the French Caribbean, for sale to the public next week. Harvey provides a thorough accounting of the social and demographic structure of the French Antilles and the French Atlantic in the period between the Seven Years’ War and the French Revolution. The book is published by the Cornell University Press.

“After a devastating defeat by the British, French reformers hoped to revitalize what remained of their empire to make it more resilient, more stable, and more profitable,” Harvey said. “They drew upon Enlightenment principles such as rationality, civic virtue, and universal human rights to promote free trade, implement legal and administrative reforms, and attempt a transition from slavery to free wage labor.  While these reforms failed in the short term and did not prevent the collapse of the French monarchy, I argue that they helped to shape post-Revolutionary France’s ‘mission to civilize’ in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.”

“Dr. Harvey’s scholarship on modern Europe has been an asset to New College during his many years on the faculty here, and his latest publication is a testament to his acumen as a historian,” said New College President Richard Corcoran.

Harvey holds a Ph.D. in Modern European History from Princeton, is tenured and has taught at New College since 2000. He is the former chair of the Division of Social Sciences and Chair of the Faculty, and former chair of the Educational Policy Committee. Tropical Despotisms is Harvey’s fourth full-length book.