Power: Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Volume III [Hardcover]

Michel Foucault (Author), Robert Hurley (Author), Paul Rabinow (Author)

Book Description

Series: New Press Essential | Publication Date: October 2000

The final volume in the definitive collection of Foucault's articles, interviews, and seminars. Power, the final volume of Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, draws together philosopher Michel Foucault's contributions to what he saw as the still-underdeveloped practice of political analysis. It covers the domains Foucault helped to make part of the core agenda of Western political culture--medicine, psychiatry, prisons, sexuality--illuminating and expanding on the themes of The Birth of the Clinic, Discipline and Punish, and the first volume of The History of Sexuality. Power includes important later writings, and it highlights Foucault's revolutionary analysis of the politics of personal conduct and freedom. It also documents Foucault's wide-ranging involvements, through lectures, articles, and interviews published throughout the world, many unavailable in English until now.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The third volume of Foucault's miscellaneous writings--previous volumes covered Ethics (1997) and Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology (1998)--gathers lectures and prefaces, group discussions and interviews. Foucault made no claim to be a political theorist, yet the nature of power and the ways it is exercised were a central concern of much of his work. The volume's thirty pieces include historical discussions (The Politics of Health in the Eighteenth Century, About the Concept of the Dangerous Individual in Nineteenth-Century Legal Psychiatry) and theoretical analyses (Truth and Juridical Forms, Governmentality, The Subject and Power), as well as interviews and examples of Foucault's own political activism (Letter to Certain Leaders of the Left). Mary Carroll
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Review

Exhibits Foucault's development of thought and rich range of textual exercises. -- Richard Shusterman, The Nation

What shines through in these pieces... is [Foucault's] remarkable liveliness of response, the extravagance of his curiosity, the originality and assurance of his formulations. Foucault today remains a sharply etched individual, an unmistakable voice. To read this... is to remember -- as with the Kennedy assassination or the Challenger explosion -- where you were when you heard it for the first time. -- Geoffrey Galt Harpham, The Boston Book Review

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156584257X
• ISBN-13: 978-1565842571
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,516,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

One of the leading intellectuals of the twentieth century and the most prominent thinker in post-war France, Foucault's work influenced disciplines as diverse as history, sociology, philosophy, sociology and literary criticism.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Just for Foucault Fanatics, January 9, 2001

By 

Panopticonman "panopticonman" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Power: Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Volume III (Hardcover)

This collection of Foucault's essays, lectures, interviews, and editorials, offers even the casual reader of Foucault welcome insights into his methods, his intellectual biography and the development of his own methods. Most valuable perhaps are interviews collected from various magazines where he is challenged by his interviewers to respond to their criticisms and the criticisms of others. In one, for instance, Foucault tries hard to correct those who read his works as a totalizing critique of capitalism, or the current penal system, or the mental institution. He insists that his works are only intended to be seen as the history of various specific institutions and that those critics and followers who are tempted to project his findings onto current practices distort his intent. Whether or not you believe him, his defense of his method and his avowed intent are compelling. In another, he also quickly and cogently characterizes his two main intellectual influences, Hegelism and phenomenology, explains why he rejected these particular philosophical trends, but how they nevertheless challenged him to arrive at his own agenda and the course of his studies. Throughout Foucault is ruthlessly honest about his own failings -- for instance his lack of knowledge about the Frankfurt School, and thoughtful -- his appraisal of the problems that inhere in national healthcare programs, which he generally supports but with interesting qualifications. The editorials, while they address issues that may seem remote or dated, demonstrate that he was actively engaged in the politics of his time, and show how he applies his analytical methods to current events. Some selections will be of interest only to the Foucault fanatic or to his biographers, which is the reason for the four star, instead of the five-star, rating. Highly recommended.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of Rabinow's 'Foucault : Power', March 14, 2011

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Ryan S. Mease "scott.godwin" (Chicago, IL, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Power (The Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Vol. 3) (Paperback)

I suppose this work wins big for the simple volume of material presented. The large collection of essays, lectures and interviews really digs into every little corner of Foucault's thought on power, including its slow development toward ethics. The collection also contains more than a hundred pages on Foucault's political activities. Again, the introduction is lengthy, thorough and very great at summarizing a complex system of thought.