Rating: 
Summary: Becomes riveting around page 220
Review: Foucault traces the history of the prison system and the fundamental change in punishment that took place in the seventeenth century from retributive punishment of criminals, 'supplice,' to the rehabilitation of delinquents. Foucault is concerned with this change as it demonstrates something pervasive and not just exclusive to the prison system--normalization, or socialization. All the silly little things done in schools, for instance, you will see in quite a different light after reading this book. It's one of those books that--well, at the risk of sounding supremely cornball, will open your mind. All mind-opening books are painful, though, and this is definitely a painful read, mainly thanks to Foucault's _terrible_ writing style. Apparently he wrote it in two days straight with the aid of way too much coffee. (This is partly the translator's fault--other translator's version are a [slight] improvement, and when Foucault wrote in English he did a better job than any of his translators. Slightly better, that is.) Be prepared for sentences within sentences within sentences within sentences within sentences, none of which are marked off by parentheses or dashes. Foucault uses commas very, very lavishly, as some sort of all-purpose punctuation mark, and shies away from periods as if they were the Plague. Eventually, you get used to it, though, and the content is actually worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: Power is Knowledge
Review: Foucault's epistemology is clear - knowledge develops from power. This is an interesting genealogy of the penal system but, an analytical and critical depiction of an observed social phenomenom, it isn't. Foucault's sociology of the body is quite an intriguing sidetrack in his historical account of the decentralization of power. Despite the potential for being a great piece of social analysis, Foucault falls short in Discipline and Punish by insisting on remaining detached from the phenomenom about which he writes. On the bright side, those with the appropriate sensibilities will be fascinated by some thrillingly macabre depicitions of old forms of punishment.
Rating:
Summary: An absolute classic
Review: Foucault's masterpiece once again reveals the inadequacy inherent in Hegelian homogeneous progressive histories. Foucault invites us to the annals of overlooked spaces of knowledge; schools, prisons, mental hospitals,.. It is a work that entices us to question the philosphy of punishment and how laws are part of the network of power that creates knowledge which in turn bestows the power to regulate, discipine and reproduce reality. And although Foucault does not explicity voice it, capitalism once again is the impetus behind the invention of new forms of rationality and knowledge. The book is an example of a genological rendering of history, which situates discourse on stage of human change which is not always to the best.
Rating:
Summary: A great philosophical work!
Review: Foucault's work is more philosophical than historical, and, as such, he is not bound by historical rules of evidence. Thus, the criticisms of the previous reviewer do not apply. This is a thoroughly enjoyable work for anyone interested in a serious look at power relations.
Rating:
Summary: Ready for a prison escape?
Review: Get ready for a new way of looking at the prison system and the history background that precedes it. This is a critical study of the origins of the prison system and the penalization of criminals. Not an easy read by no means, but a truely provacative thought generating means of looking at the discipline and the prison system of Britian.
Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating - and vivid - Account of Crime and Punishment
Review: I am not a big fan of Foucault; however, I was fascinated by Crime and Punishment. One of the principal ideas which Foucault discusses in Discipline & Punish is that public executions have constituted as much a method of crime prevention as a public spectacle. I find that his ideas can be easily transposed to explain the public's fascination with media violence, wrestling, boxing and so on.
As the ideas of the enlightenment spread throughout the 19th century executions and torture became less frequent and conducted ever further from the public spotlight while more 'humane' methods of killing were also adopted. No longer were prisoners dragged behind horses, crushed on cart wheels or had their limbs severed one by one. The Guillotine, firing squads and poisonous concoctions vastly accelerated the dying process and reduced physical pain. Foucault does not in any way suggest that man is any more or less violent today than he was two centuries ago or 2000 years ago. Nonetheless, he shows that the violence of justice has changed its modus operandi. The West has seen the longest period of peace in history, economic conditions have improved for the majority and violence (physical and psychological) is not tolerated. At the same time, criminals enjoy more rights privileges and there have been efforts to ensure humane treatment of prisoners. Therefore, taking Foucault into consideration, violence in film is none other than the public's basic, and instinctively human, appetite for violence that always looks for ways of manifesting itself in accordance to society's norms. If the public torture of a man whose bones were crushed or limbs cut off (in such a way that the victim could clearly see what was being done) or a public hanging constituted an popular occasion for spectacle in the 18th century, so then do graphic violent films appeal to people in the same way in the 21st century.
Therefore, in many ways, Foucault's ideas as expressed in Discipline and Punish support the notion that violence in contemporary cinema has a cathartic function.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: I found this book especially interesting from the perspective of anarchism. It provided a richer construction of power and coersion than you see in traditional anarchism. This new conception of coearsion can provide the basis for a deeper understanding how power plays out through the instutions of our society. It should be on every anarchist's required reading list.
Rating: 
Summary: Mashed Potato Through a Straw
Review: I was assigned this book in a class last semester. I am glad that I read it; and I encourage others to do so. I do not, however, share the adulation of my professor or my fellow students for Foucault's thought. His presentation of an absolutist vision is itself a totalitarian infliction. Transferring the architectural vision of control through environment into organized society in general is intriguing and provacative, yet the only valid ideas he presents are those thoroughly explored by other, more talented scholars. Any cursory reading of sociologists in the late 1800s, and this century's extensive exploration of behaviorism is far more useful. The mechanisms of control are thorougly explicated in many disciplines; Foucault fails to clearly illustrate the omnipresence that his model requires to demonstrate any relevance. Supposedly it is the absence and inscrutability of panoptic mechanisms that proves their pervasion. However, Foucault simply cannot adequately illustrate the unity and method required for a self-sustaining system to actually be. Foucault's only historical examples are medieval punitive methods, which really only shows that mechanisms of control are endemic of human society, and not so unique of modernity. Additionally, his historical anecdotes are not presented in any scientific format. Rather they are simply literary lead-ins to a commentary on a context that the anecdotes are supposed to be divorced from. The real fault of this usage is that his arguments for a self-sustaining quantitative process with no demonstrative ends for the process is based on anecdotal references that were clearly intended to achieve specific policy goals; whether the containment of disease through quarantine, or deterrence through violent punishment. Possible problems for devotees of Foucault will be that they will manage to observe any sort of political process and think it is valid to induce that it is a function of the panoptic dragon. Modern constitutional democracy is based on the sense of a process or system as being the valid mechanism for guaranteeing life and liberty. The sometime ambiguity of these ends does not invalidate the fact that there is a process that uses mechanisms of control to achieve these social goals. The frailty of human relations in complex organizations require a system of balance that does not necessarily explicate the achievement of paradise-on-earth in order for it to have a useful purpose to individuals.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: I've read this book three times: First time was in undergraduate, second time was in law school, third time was last week. I can honestly say that my understanding of this work has grown with each reading, but that growth in comprehension has come more from my reading of other books either discussing or related to Discipline and Punish. Specifically, I would recommend Jurgen Habermas's critique of Foucault, although I now forget which book of his contains his critique. I would also recommend Goffman's "Asylums" and Sykes "The Society of the Prison" as works which can illuminate Foucault's oft dense prose. Foucault's main thesis is that the transistion of society into modernity has resulted in institutions which are increasingly devoted to the control of the "inmate's" time. The instituions use this control of time to develop discipline. Discipline is then used to both reinforce the strength of the instituion and also to expand the reach of institution's into the community. As other reviewers have noted, this book isn't really about Prisons. Rather, the development of the modern prison represents the pinnacle of the relationship between power and discipline. Foucault leads up to his discussion of the prison by examining developments in other instituions: the work shop, the school and the barracks. I really would encourage admirers of this work to read Goffman's "Asylums". The two books overlap to a considerable degree, but they both complement one another.
Rating:
Summary: Power, Discipline and Institutions in Modernity
Review: I've read this book three times: First time was in undergraduate, second time was in law school, third time was last week. I can honestly say that my understanding of this work has grown with each reading, but that growth in comprehension has come more from my reading of other books either discussing or related to Discipline and Punish. Specifically, I would recommend Jurgen Habermas's critique of Foucault, although I now forget which book of his contains his critique. I would also recommend Goffman's "Asylums" and Sykes "The Society of the Prison" as works which can illuminate Foucault's oft dense prose. Foucault's main thesis is that the transistion of society into modernity has resulted in institutions which are increasingly devoted to the control of the "inmate's" time. The instituions use this control of time to develop discipline. Discipline is then used to both reinforce the strength of the instituion and also to expand the reach of institution's into the community. As other reviewers have noted, this book isn't really about Prisons. Rather, the development of the modern prison represents the pinnacle of the relationship between power and discipline. Foucault leads up to his discussion of the prison by examining developments in other instituions: the work shop, the school and the barracks. I really would encourage admirers of this work to read Goffman's "Asylums". The two books overlap to a considerable degree, but they both complement one another.
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