diff --git a/Lib/distutils/util.py b/Lib/distutils/util.py
--- a/Lib/distutils/util.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/util.py
@@ -310,19 +310,18 @@
 
 
 def strtobool (val):
-    """Convert a string representation of truth to true (1) or false (0).
+    """Convert a string representation of truth to True or False.
 
     True values are 'y', 'yes', 't', 'true', 'on', and '1'; false values
     are 'n', 'no', 'f', 'false', 'off', and '0'.  Raises ValueError if
     'val' is anything else.
     """
-    val = string.lower(val)
+    val = val.casefold()
     if val in ('y', 'yes', 't', 'true', 'on', '1'):
-        return 1
+        return True
     elif val in ('n', 'no', 'f', 'false', 'off', '0'):
-        return 0
-    else:
-        raise ValueError, "invalid truth value %r" % (val,)
+        return False
+    raise ValueError(f'invalid truth value {val}')
 
 
 def byte_compile (py_files,