Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1997 11:55:22 -0500 (EST)
From: John Ransom <ransom-AT-dickinson.edu>
Subject: Re: foucault, power and authenticity


On Mon, 10 Feb 1997 brehkopf-AT-nexus.yorku.ca wrote:

> 
> > If I could second Professor Rehkopf's point about the importance of theory
> > with regard to Foucault: His particular importance, it seems to me, is as
> > a theorist of opposition in a post-Wall world. There is a great deal of
> > confusion, angst, and uncertainty concerning the demise of the
> > "Revolution" as a viable oppositional paradigm. Foucault, I think, was
> > trying to present a new picture of the political world and a new
> > justification for oppositional thought and practice appropriate to that
> > world. If I may be allowed to mention it, I pursue this theme in my book,
> > just released by Duke University Press, titled _Foucault's Discipline :
> > The Politics of Subjectivity_.
> > 
> > John Ransom
> > Political Science
> > Dickinson College, Carlisle PA
> > ransom-AT-dickinson.edu
> 
> 
> Prof. Ransom,
> 
> Your book sounds very interesting. Would you be comfortable providing a
> short summary of the contents here? An inside flap blurb or even a list
> of chapter headings?
> 
> I've always thought subjectivity is the most important theme in 
> understanding Foucault's work, and would love to get a thumbnail sketch 
> of your work until I can get your book.
> 
> If you have time, of course.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Blaine Rehkopf
> Philosophy
> York University
> CANADA
> 
> PS  I should not misidentify myself; I do tend to profess too often, but
>     I'm not a Professor.  One day....one day....  :)
> -- 
> 

It's very nice of you to ask. Here's the back cover blurb:

	In _Foucault's Discipline_, John S. Ransom extracts a distinctive
	vision of the political world -- and oppositional possibilities
	within it -- from the welter of disparate topics and projects
	Michel Foucault pursued over his lifetime. Uniquely, Ransom
	presents Foucault as a political theorist in the tradition of
	Weber and Nietzsche, and specifically examines Foucault's work
	in relation to the political tradition of liberalism and the
	Frankfurt School . . . . _Foucault's Discipline_ demonstrates
	how Foucault's valorization of descriptive critique over
	prescriptive plans of action can be applied to the decisively
	altered political landscape of this millennium. By
	reconstructing the philosopher's arguments concerning the
	significance of disciplinary institutions, biopower, subjectivity,
	and forms of resistance in modern society, Ransom shows how
	Foucault has provided a different way of looking at and
	responding to contemporary models of government -- in short,
	a new depiction of the political world.

The contents are:

	Introduction: Rethinking "Critique"
	I   Confronting New Forms of Power
	II  Disciplines and the Individual
	III Governmentality and Population
	IV  Genealogy in the Discipinary Age
	V   The "Plebeian Aspect"
	VI  Politics, Norms, and the Self
	Conclusion

--John S. Ransom