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The Foucault Reader
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 194
EAN: 9780394713403
ISBN: 0394713400
Label: Pantheon
Manufacturer: Pantheon
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: November 12, 1984
Publisher: Pantheon
Release Date: November 12, 1984
Studio: Pantheon
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Editorial Review:
Michel Foucault was one of the most influential 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serve that purpose.The Reader contains selections from each area of Foucault's work as well as a wealth of previously unpublished writings, including important material written especially for this volume, the preface to the long-awaited second volume of The History of Sexuality, and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.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A Look into Bleak mid-20th Century French Thought
The Foucault Reader edited by Paul Rainbow is a selection of writings from, and interviews with, Michael Foucault.
Although I am far from a Foucault scholar the collection strikes me as a representative sample of his thought. The selections are primarily focused on the intersection of power and knowledge within modern European society. The introduction by Rainbow is well done and helpful in situating Foucault and the themes of his writing. Foucault is often intentionally vague and ... Read More
Rating:  - 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?" and "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History") and some VERY edited selections from his most famous oeuvres, especially "Discipline and Punish". If you want a very general overview of Foucault's theories, get this... some information contained ... Read More
Rating: - 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. This is a similar theme in the segment Panopticism where Foucault shows a transition ... Read More
Rating: - 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.
Rating:  - Good beginning
This is a good introductory book, not so good if you have (like myself) read a great deal of Foucault and have at least a solid grounding in some of his basic concepts.
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