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 this work, the author suggests that such vaunted reforms as the abolition of torture and the emergence of the modern penitentiary have merely shifted the focus of punishment from the prisoner's body to his soul.

When one defines 'order' as a sorting of priorities, it becomes beautifully clear what Foucault is doing here. He weaves an intensely complex history of thought. He dips into literature, art, economics and even biology.