The History of Sexuality: An Introduction

by Michel Foucault

Why we are so fascinated with sex and sexuality—from the preeminent philosopher of the 20th century.

Michel Foucault offers an iconoclastic exploration of why we feel compelled to continually analyze and discuss sex, and of the social and mental mechanisms of power that cause us to direct the questions of what we are to what our sexuality is.

• ISBN10: 0679724699
• ISBN13: 9780679724698
• Publish Date: 14 April 1990
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 14 July 2011
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Vintage
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 176
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780679724698

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

Laying the foundations so I can read some other books in dialogue with this one. But a pretty great mic drop:

Briefly, my aim is to examine the case of a society which has been loudly castigating itself for its hypocrisy for more than a century, which speaks verbosely of its own silence, takes great pains to relate in detail the things it does not say, denounces the powers it exercises, and promises to liberate itself from the very laws that have made it function.

So far, the way he wants to rethink what’s “obvious” and examine who gets the power if we do think that way is very much my thing.

[celinenyx]

Foucault is a fascinating thinker, and I like how he often goes against conventional thinking to turn arguments on their heads. His broad historical foundation leads to interesting commentary on how sexuality and power have been connected throughout the ages. However, especially towards the end, I found he would often make sweeping statements without any concrete examples of what he meant. Though in general I don't mind having a certain distance from source material, Foucault often stretches that boundary to the point where one can wonder how his arguments even relate to historical reality.