"Society Must Be Defended": Lectures at the College de France, 1975-76 [Hardcover]

Michel Foucault (Author), David Macey (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312203187 | ISBN-13: 978-0312203184 | Publication Date: January 1, 2003 | Edition: First Edition

An examination of relations between war and politics

From 1971 until his death in 1984, Michel Foucault taught at the Collège de France, perhaps the most prestigious intellectual institution in Europe. Each year, in a series of 12 public lectures, Foucault sought to explain his research of the previous year. These lectures do not reduplicate his published books, although they do have themes in common. The lectures show Foucault ranging freely and conversationally over the implications of his research.

In Society Must Be Defended, Foucault deals with the emergence in the early 17th century of a new understanding of society and its relation to war. War was now seen as the permanent basis of all institutions of power, a hidden presence within society that could be deciphered by an historical analysis. Tracing this development, Foucault outlines a genealogy of power/knowledge that was to become a primary concern in his final years.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[Foucault] must be reckoned with by humanists, social scientists, and political activists." --The New York Times Book Review

"Foucault is quite central to our sense of where we are. . . [He] is carrying out, in the noblest way, the promiscuous aim of true culture." --The Nation

"[Foucault] has an alert and sensitive mind which can ignore the familiar surfaces of established intellectual codes and ask new questions. . ..[He] gives dramatic quality to the movement of culture." --The New York Review of Books

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Michel Foucault, acknowledged as the preeminent philosopher of France in the ’70s and ’80s, had enormous impact throughout the world, in many disciplines. His books include: History of Sexuality, volumes I, II, and III, Madness and Civilization, and Discipline and Punish.

Translator David Macey has translated 20 books from the French and is the author of The Lives of Michel Foucault and Frantz Fanon (Picador). He lives in Leeds, England.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Picador; First Edition edition (January 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312203187
• ISBN-13: 978-0312203184
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,152,491 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

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable Addition to Foucault's Oeuvre, February 24, 2005

By 

Ling H. Lam (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: "Society Must Be Defended": Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975-1976 (Paperback)

Foucault never wrote a monograph on power per se, the arguably most influential notion put forth by him. Yet this posthumous publication of his College de France lectures 1975-76 approximates one. Here one can find the most elaborate discussion of the distinction between power-as-law and power as a bunch of local techniques and force relations, and more important, the idiosyncratic conceptualization of political power based on the model of war. It is also in these lectures that Foucault gives a sustantial analysis of racism. Although these topics are already touched upon in The History of Sexuality vol. 1, unfortunately they have not been given extended space to develop thanks to Foucault's drastic modification of his writing plan. Two decades after his premature death, we are finally allowed to have a better understanding of Foucault's profound reflection upon these issues. The continual unveiling of Foucault's other lectures in print in years to come makes life worthy to live even in this depressive political atmosphere.

57 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Offering an unusually insightful perspective, February 11, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: "Society Must Be Defended": Lectures at the College de France, 1975-76 (Hardcover)

Capably and collaboratively edited by Mauro Bertani and Allesandro Fontana, "Society Must Be Defended" is a collection of French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault's eleven lectures given at the College de France from 1975 to 1976, and which are ably translated into English for an American readership by David Macey. Offering an unusually insightful perspective and wisdom on a wide variety of educational topics ranging from the origin of feudalism, to the functions and domains of racism, to Hobbes' ideas on war and sovereignty, and a great deal more, "Society Must Be Defended" is a very thought-provoking and instructive collection from a uniquely informed and informative point of view. As Michel Foucault writes about this compilation of his views: "The role of history will, then, be to show that laws deceive, that kings wear masks, that power creates illusions, and that historians tell lies. This will not, then, be a history of continuity, but a history of deciphering, the detection of the secret, the outwitting of the ruse, and the reappropriation of a knowledge that has been distorted or buried. It will decipher a truth that has been sealed".

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Society Must be Defended, November 12, 2008

By 

L. M. Smith - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: "Society Must Be Defended": Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975-1976 (Paperback)

Readers of Foucault must read this entire lecture series rather than rely upon the previous three published lectures to appreciate the full message he conveys.