The History of Sexuality: 1: The Will to Knowledge

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The first volume of Foucault's pioneering analysis of sexuality and power relations, now reissued in Penguin Modern Classics We talk about sex more and more, but are we more liberated The first part of Michel Foucault's landmark account of our evolving attitudes in the west shows how the nineteenth century, far from suppressing sexuality, led to an explosion of discussion about sex as a separate sphere of life for study and examination. As a result, he argues, we are making a science of sex which is devoted to the analysis of desire rather than the increase of pleasure.

Reviews

A wealth of insights, original conceptualizations and provocative ideas -- Peter Oborne * Daily Telegraph *
A brilliant display of fireworks, attacking the widespread and banal notion that 'in the beginning' sexual activity was guilt-free and delicious, being repressed and blighted only by the gloom of Victorianism -- Jasper Griffin * Spectator *
Foucault is at his polemical best. He brilliantly succeeds in turning commonplaces on their heads -- Hayden White * The Times Literary Supplement *

Author Bio

Michel Foucalt (1926-1984) was one of the leading intellectuals of the twentieth century and the most prominent thinker in postwar France. Foucault's work influenced disciplines as diverse as history, sociology, philosophy, sociology and literary criticism.