The Foucault Reader: An Introduction to Foucault's Thought

By Michel Foucault

Book Overview

Michel Foucault was one of the most influential philosophical thinkers in the contemporary world, someone whose work has affected the teaching of half a dozen disciplines ranging from literary criticism to the history of criminology. But of his many books, not one offers a satisfactory introduction to the entire complex body of his work. The Foucault Reader was commissioned precisely to serve that purpose. The Reader contains selections from each area of Foucault's work as well as a wealth of previously unpublished writings, including important material written especially for this volume, the preface to the long-awaited second volume of The History of Sexuality, and interviews with Foucault himself, in the course of which he discussed his philosophy at first hand and with unprecedented candor. This philosophy comprises an astonishing intellectual enterprise: a minute and ongoing investigation of the nature of power in society. Foucault's analyses of this power as it manifests itself in society, schools, hospitals, factories, homes, families, and other forms of organized society are brought together in The Foucault Reader to create an overview of this theme and of the broad social and political vision that underlies it. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394713400
• ISBN13: 9780394713403
• Release Date: November 1984
• Publisher: Pantheon
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 1.0" x 5.2"

Customer Reviews

Great Book

Book arrived as described, very fast shipment. The book is in great condition, absolutely no problem at all. thank you, will shop again.

Goes down easy

This volume includes some classic Foucault essays, like the segment from Birth of the Asylum in which Foucault explains how the asylum sets up controls by means of perpetual observation and perpetual judgement. By continually observing and judging people, the impetus for conformity is laid to rest, becomes less visible, less obvious and subsequently, according to Foucault, all the more powerful because of its restrained state...

All the Foucault you'll ever need....

Foucault has been well served by this editor. Rabinow can't do anything about the author's dry, humorless prose style, but he has at least wittled it down into digestible chunks. Of course, Foucault's major thesis, that human liberation has made no progress in the last two centuries, is ludicrous. Foucault's continuing influence on American intellectual life is one of the enduring mysteries of our times.

Nice Overview

If you're wondering about Foucault, this is a great book to pick up. Not all of the concepts make sense immediately, as it is a reader and Foucault is complicated, but it's still worth a look. Pick out some favorite chapters and then read further.

Good introduction to Foucault - makes you want to read more

This book offers a good overview of Foucaults writings, making the reader (at least me) wanting to dig deeper into several of the subjects Foucault addressed. A shortcoming is that, considering the wealth of Foucault's ouevre, some of the chapters are too condensed to be used as more than an "intellectual appetizer". I assume that for the reader who is not familiar with Foucault at all, some other book like "Foucault for Beginners"...