The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season168 pages, about 3 hours: half the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbThe opening chapter, We Other Victorians, states the repressive hypothesis before Foucault challenges it with the idea of a discursive explosion.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 12 reviews from critics and book blogs, none credit the plot and 12 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesOne reviewer compares it to Discipline and Punish, also on the shelf at 333 pages, calling this book the tougher read of the two.
The case for it
on Foucault’s prose
“Foucault is an entertaining, sensually engaging writer.”
William Dale · The Atlas Society, 2011 on sexuality and capitalism
“It helps to clarify the nature of the relationship between sexuality and capitalism”
Jordan Humphreys · Marxist Left Review, 2017 on queer theory
“is arguably the foundational text for the field of queer theory”
Laura Kenna · Center for Pastor Theologians, 2023 on the construction of sexuality
“encouraged me to ask honest questions and to trust my judgment”
a book blog
The case against
on Discipline and Punish
“This was a tougher read than Discipline and Punish.”
a Substack review on salacious details
“readers are often disappointed to find Foucault’s History of Sexuality remarkably devoid of salacious details”
Joseph Tanke · Los Angeles Review of Books, 2018 on the prose
“The book is often maddeningly unclear and dense”
a book blog on the second half
“it seemed like the piece should have already finished”
a book blog
