Discipline and Punish Summary

Discipline and Punish Overview

Published in 1975, Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish is a historical study of the socio-political mechanisms that drove the development of the prison in Western societies. Utilizing primary sources and the works of other theorists, Foucault seeks to unearth the forces that drove the change between corporeal punishment in the feudal and absolutist eras and disciplinary prison in modern society. Foucault’s analysis focuses on the way that power relations drive key developments in penal history.