Product Description
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The Reader contains selections from each area of Foucault's work as well as a wealth of previously unpublished writings, including important material written especially for this volume, the preface to the long-awaited second volume of The History of Sexuality, and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 Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 8 reviews)

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 as a result can be difficult to decipher. That said, Rainbow's praise seems overstated. For instance, he make Foucault appear almost modest and unassuming - not my impression.

Foucault's writing is difficult to classify. It is not truly philosophy or history in any meaningful sense. Although he styles himself after Nietzsche, Foucault is only a philosopher in the broadest of continental senses. While on the latter point, though much of his work is written in a historical guise it is more properly a form of historic fiction - created to highlight certain of the author's notions.

To me the most interesting aspect of Foucault is the insight he provides into twentieth century French thought. During the first half of the past century France experienced significant decline and suffering. This period, not surprisingly, triggered a wide-range of nihilistic writing. For students of European social history Foucault is a window into this bleak period.

Though Foucault has his followers, from my perspective his work has little enduring value.

November 27, 2006

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 here in priceless. If you are interested in reading his books... this certainly won't do. I think Mr Rabinow justly skips Foucault's initial "phase" (archeology) BUT unjustly overlooks most of Foucault's final phase (technologies & hermeneutics of the self). One of Foucault's most important essays is missing here, "The Subject & The Power", in which he pieces together his general reflexions on well, the subject and the power. I guess the reason for not including that article is because it is already featured as an extra "bonus" in Rabinow's own "Beyond Hermeneutics & Structuralism".
The introductory pages written by Paul Rabinow are ALSO excellent, by the way.
All in all, a good compilation, if only just a starting point.
June 10, 2003

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 in prison systems from physical manipulation to implicit manipulation. This new form of control is implemented through a physical construction that creates the illusion of continual surveillance. This surveillance creates the impetus for self-control. It ties in rather tightly with earlier discussions by Elias and Bordeau on etiquette. Etiquette is enforced and reinforced by the social force of shame and embarrassment. People control themselves out of a desire not to be looked down upon - to control their own public reputations. Panopticism works in a similar way - by continual observation or the illusion of continual observation, people are expected to continually discipline themselves so as to avoid being disciplined by an external source.
This discussion of self-disciplining the self is an interesting paradigm to work with in the electronic media. TV personnel have certain self-imposed expectations - far beyond state censorship and far more powerful, the desire to be respected by one's peers and superiors, controls the content of the media. Similarly, chatters on the Net are divided on a range along this self-imposed discipline from those who deliberately say the most absurd things just because they are outside the Panopticon to those who continue to hold real whole expectations of themselves in the virtual world. Between these two is a whole range of behaviors from constructing wildly inaccurate selves for Net view to "white lies" about age, weight, hair color, etc. The Net is interesting precisely because it falls outside the daily life which is observed and surveyed, i.e. similar in structure to a social Panopticon and TV news is interesting because it is a much more highly judged arena to step into. Foucault's writing provides more points from which to view the same sociological problem, allowing a researcher to more ably unpack issues embedded in the study.
December 18, 2001

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.
March 27, 2000

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.
September 22, 1999

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

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

Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison
by Michel Foucault

The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction
by Michel Foucault

The Archaeology of Knowledge & The Discourse on Language
by Michel Foucault

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