Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Collge de France, 1975-76

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SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED is a full transcript of the lectures given by Foucault at the College de France in 1975-76. The main theme of the lectures is the contention that war can be used to analyse power relations. Foucault contends that politics isa continuation of war by other means. Thus, any constitutional theory of sovereignty and right is an attempt to refute the fact that power relations are based upon a relationship of conflict, violence and domination. The book is coloured with historical examples, drawn from the early modern period in both England and France, with wonderful digressions into subjects as diverse as classical French tragedy and the gothic novel.

Reviews

"[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."
"[Foucault] must be reckoned with by humanists, social scientists, and political activists."
"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."

Author Bio

Michel Foucault was born in France in 1926. At the time of his death in 1984, he was without doubt France's most prominent thinker. David Macey is the translator of numerous works from French and the author of LACAN IN CONTEXTS, THE LIVES OF MICHEL FOUCAULT, FRANTZ FANON: A LIFE and THE PENGUIN DICTIONARY OF CRITICAL THEORY