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  • © 2015

The Punitive Society

Lectures at the Collège de France, 1972-1973

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Indispensable for understanding the nature and unity of Foucault's overall project
  • Examines how the relations between justice and truth that govern modern penal law were forged
  • Brings together previously unpublished historical material concerning classical political economy, the Quakers, English 'Dissenters,' and their philanthropy
  • Invaluable not only for students of Foucault's work, but also all students of political philosophy
  • One of the greatest texts recounting the history of capitalism

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Table of contents (15 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
  2. 3 January 1973

    • Bernard E. Harcourt, François Ewald, Alessandro Fontana
    Pages 1-20
  3. 10 January 1973

    • Bernard E. Harcourt, François Ewald, Alessandro Fontana
    Pages 21-42
  4. 17 January 1973

    • Bernard E. Harcourt, François Ewald, Alessandro Fontana
    Pages 43-60
  5. 24 January 1973

    • Bernard E. Harcourt, François Ewald, Alessandro Fontana
    Pages 61-81
  6. 31 January 1973

    • Bernard E. Harcourt, François Ewald, Alessandro Fontana
    Pages 82-98
  7. 7 February 1973

    • Bernard E. Harcourt, François Ewald, Alessandro Fontana
    Pages 99-121
  8. 14 February 1973

    • Bernard E. Harcourt, François Ewald, Alessandro Fontana
    Pages 122-138
  9. 21 February 1973

    • Bernard E. Harcourt, François Ewald, Alessandro Fontana
    Pages 139-154
  10. 28 February 1973

    • Bernard E. Harcourt, François Ewald, Alessandro Fontana
    Pages 155-169
  11. 7 March 1973

    • Bernard E. Harcourt, François Ewald, Alessandro Fontana
    Pages 170-185
  12. 14 March 1973

    • Bernard E. Harcourt, François Ewald, Alessandro Fontana
    Pages 186-200
  13. 21 March 1973

    • Bernard E. Harcourt, François Ewald, Alessandro Fontana
    Pages 201-224
  14. 28 March 1973

    • Bernard E. Harcourt, François Ewald, Alessandro Fontana
    Pages 225-247
  15. Course Summary

    • Bernard E. Harcourt, François Ewald, Alessandro Fontana
    Pages 248-264
  16. Course Context

    • Bernard E. Harcourt
    Pages 265-310
  17. Back Matter

    Pages 311-320

About this book

These thirteen lectures on the 'punitive society,' delivered at the Collège de France in the first three months of 1973, examine the way in which the relations between justice and truth that govern modern penal law were forged, and question what links them to the emergence of a new punitive regime that still dominates contemporary society.

Reviews

Selected by Choice magazine as an "Outstanding Academic Title" for 2016

“Delivered shortly after the dissolution of Group d’Information sur les Prisons, Foucault’s third lecture course at the Collège de France coincided with a significant change in his thinking about prisons, as he began to reflect on the disciplinary power at work in prisons and in society more generally. … Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.” (A. D. Schrift, Choice, Vol. 53 (9), May, 2016)

“Bernard Harcourt … has done a fantastic job establishing the text of the lectures … . He provides us with countless erudite references to Foucault’s unacknowledged as well as acknowledged sources and supplies a clear, fair-minded and modest commentary. The editors of the series and Harcourt’s research assistants also need our thanks as well. But in the end, it is Graham Burchell’s superb translation and Harcourt’s absolutely rigorous editing work … that ought toreceive our everlasting thanks.” (Mariana Valverdem, British Journal of Criminology, Vol. 57 (1), January, 2017)

“[Foucault] must be reckoned with.” (The New York Times Book Review)

“Ideas spark off nearly every page of this book, as Foucault manages to reinvigorate questions of power and violence that might have seemed well-worn. The words may have been spoken in 1976, but they seem as alive and relevant as if they had been written yesterday.” (Bookforum)

“Foucault is quite central to our sense of where we are.” (The Nation)

“[Foucault] has an alert and sensitive mind that can ignore the familiar surfaces of established intellectual coded and ask new questions [He] gives dramatic quality to the movement of culture.” (The New York Review of Books)

“These lectures offer important insights into the evolution of the primary focus of Foucault's later work the relationship between power and knowledge.” (Library Journal)

About the authors

Author Michel Foucault: Michel Foucault, acknowledged as the pre-eminent philosopher of France in the 1970s and 1980s, continues to have enormous impact throughout the world in many disciplines.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access