Discipline and Punish (Penguin Modern Classics)

'Imaginative, illuminating and innovative' The New York Times Book Review

Thegrisly spectacle of public executions and torture of centuries ago hasbeen replaced by the penal system in western society - but has anythingreally changed?

In his revolutionary work on control and power relationsin our public institutions, Michel Foucault argues that the developmentof prisons, police organizations and legal hierarchies has merelychanged the focus of domination from our bodies to our souls. Evenschools, factories, barracks and hospitals, in which an individual'stime is controlled hour by hour, are part of a disciplinary society.

'Foucault's genius is called forth into the eloquent clarity of his passions ... his best book' Washington Post

Reviews

'The main line of the thesis is enormously appealing and the range of historical sources and, even more, the analytical skill with which they are made to yield up their secrets, is quite dazzling'