Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison
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Premium Content The Problems with Historical Materialism in Discipline and Punish

By Adrian Jermaine Smith - May 16, 2006

In "Two Lectures," Michel Foucault criticizes historical materialism for inadequately explaining social phenomena. He derides academics that use bourgeois domination to explain a diverse range of social trends, including the exclusion of madness and the repression of infantile sexuality. Foucault calls this kind of social theory too easy and faults…

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