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Cover of Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault

Discipline and Punish

Michel Foucault

  • 333 pages · about 6 hours
  • First published 1975
  • 30 editions
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1 About this book

Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (French: Surveiller et punir – Naissance de la prison) is a 1975 book by French philosopher Michel Foucault. It is an analysis of the social and theoretical mechanisms behind the changes that occurred in Western penal systems during the modern age based on historical documents from France.

Foucault argues that prison did not become the principal form of punishment just because of the humanitarian concerns of reformists. He traces the cultural shifts that led to the predominance of prison via the body and power. Prison is used by the "disciplines" – new technological powers that can also be found, according to Foucault, in places such as schools, hospitals, and military barracks.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Good for readers who want: philosophy, history, and essays.

  • Philosophy, modern
  • Philosophy
  • Social science
  • Sociology
  • History & Surveys
  • History
  • Essays
  • Punishment

2 About Michel Foucault

1926–1984

Paul-Michel Foucault, known as Michel Foucault, (UK: FOO-koh, US: foo-KOH; French:; 15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984) was a French philosopher, literary critic, and historian of ideas who analyzed the relationships between power, knowledge, and liberty, and how they are used as a form of social control through institutions.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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