The Essential Works of Michel Foucault, 1954-1984

Few philosophers have had as strong an influence on the twentieth century as Michel Foucault. In 1994, ten years after his death, his French publisher, Gallimard, issued Dits et ecrits, the first complete collection of all Foucault's publications outside his monographs. It is a great pleasure for The New Press to bring the most important work from Dits et ecrits - including much never before published in the United States - to English-speaking readers in a definitive three-volume series edited by Paul Rabinow. This first volume contains the famous course summaries Foucault submitted to the College de France each year from 1970 and 1982. Never before available in English, these writings provide a lucid and accessible overview of Foucault's work in progress during this time, including his groundbreaking analyses of penal institutions, psychiatry, "biopolitics," and the modern subject.