books by Michel Foucault

books by Michel Foucault

books:

Michel Foucault

The History of Sexuality, Vol. 2: The Use of Pleasure

Michel Foucault

Vintage, 1990

Good Use of Leisure
Although it is not as theoretically courageous, The Use of Pleasure is tenfold more interesting and approachable than the first volume in this trilogy on the history of sexuality. Foucault delves deep into the recesses of our occidental world by attempting to answer ...

Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison

Michel Foucault

Vintage, 1995

Excellent and thought-provoking.
Other reviews have done a nice job of explaining the textual benefits of the book, so let me explain its practical benefit. I'll keep this short and sweet. This is an excellent text to trot out during a sociology or other social science class when you want to ...

The Archaeology of Knowledge & The Discourse on Language

Michel Foucault

Pantheon, 1982

Archaeology, the Archean, the Archaic, and the Archive
The Conclusion of this book (Chapter V) is perhaps the most interesting. Foucault appears to be corresponding with an undisclosed someone, wether with himself as a self critique, or with a critic. I won't put asside the possibility he is coversing with someone from ...

The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the College de France, 1978-1979 (Lectures at the College de France)

Michel Foucault

Palgrave Macmillan, 2008

Must Read
These lectures demonstrate persuasively that the attempt to master life, especially human life, is not the legacy of Nazism or sci-fi nightmares, but the spontaneous consequence of economic liberalism in its modern form. The idea that government should intervene in ...

The Foucault Reader

Michel Foucault

Pantheon, 1984

Contains some key selections...
As Mr. Rabinow himself states, any selection of Foucault's wide range of works and écrits might seem random at best, pointless at worst. I believe, however, that this compilation includes some of Foucault's most important essays (particularly "What Is Enlightenment?" ...

Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977

Michel Foucault

Pantheon, 1980

Illuminating Interviews
The collection of interviews contained in this volume is a great guide to anyone interested in examining the work of Michel Foucault, whose work broke new ground through his sustained examination of the interplay between the forces of pwer and the production of ...

The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences

Michel Foucault

Vintage, 1994

Difficult but worth it
This book is one of the most important philosophy texts of the 20th century, if for no other reason than as an eye-opener. The text is a difficult read (although nowhere near as opaque as Derrida). The section on how our culture and, hence, our world-view has been ...

Security, Territory, Population (Lectures at the College De France)

Michel Foucault

Palgrave Macmillan, 2007

Indespensible
These are the complete course lectures in which Foucault developed his theory and history of "governmentality" as a discursive threshold of modern society. This volume is critical to any student of Foucault or government in general. To the Foucault student, it ...

Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason

Michel Foucault

Vintage, 1988

A Great Choice for the First-Time Foucault Reader
If you are looking to get into Foucault, this is a great place to start. It's a wonderful introduction to the concepts and themes that characterize this brilliant man's work, but the prose is far less dense than that of his later works.

The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction

Michel Foucault

Vintage, 1990

Hard...but worth it.
Foucault is one of the most important thinkers of our time. He is a historian, a cultural theorist, and a philosopher. When looking at the History of Sexuality Foucault does not see powerful figures repressing sex, but actually encouraging people to discuss it. This ...

Birth of the Clinic, The: An Archaeology of Medical Perception

Michel Foucault

Vintage, 1994

Sound historical interpretation, hold the postmodernism
Foucault has been interpreted in the US as a pretentious standard-bearer of postmodernism - as an almost "evil" figure who threatens to undermine the foundations of Western knowledge with his problematisation of conceptual categories. It doesn't help that his work has ...

Psychiatric Power: Lectures at the College de France, 1973--1974 (Lectures at the College de France)

Michel Foucault

Picador, 2008

Foucault-Shmoucault
This late addition to the Foucault corpus is a further installment in the College de France courses which have surfaced in the enduring craze for all things Foucault. This volume is no disappointment, as it carries within its pages that wit and offbeat genius that we ...

Introduction to Kant's Anthropology (Semiotext(e) / Foreign Agents)
Michel Foucault

Semiotext(e), 2008

This introduction and commentary to Kant's least discussed work, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, is the dissertation that Michel Foucault presented in 1961 as his doctoral thesis. It has remained unpublished, in any language, until now. In his exegesis and critical interpretation of Kant's Anthropology, Foucault raises the ...

The Chomsky-Foucault Debate: On Human Nature

Noam Chomsky, Michel Foucault

New Press, 2006

Unusual clarity
Helps the reader easily grasp both authors divergent and convergent insights on language. The material on politics was enlightening.

HISTORY OF MADNESS

Michel Foucault

Routledge, 2006

Mirror of Madness
First time the full text of Michel Foucault's "History of Madness" has been available in English. The abridged version, "Madness and Civilization", produced some notable misinterpretations and came to be viewed as an apologia for the anti-psychiatry movement of R.D. ...