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 (Click for larger image) 
Foucault, Michel (Translated by A. M. Sheridan Smith) .
THE USE OF PLEASURE: THE HISTORY OF SEXUALITY, VOLUME TWO.
New York City, NY:
Pantheon Books,
1985.
Hardcover.
First Edition/First Printing.
293 pages.
Fine/Fine.
The second volume in the author's projected and unfinished four-volume history on subject. The author's final project, it is one of the greatest texts of the 20th century. The first appearance of the title in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Volume One was "The History of Sexuality: An Introduction" while what was completed of Volume Three was published posthumously as "The Care of the Soul", one Foucault's most heartbreakingly beautiful books. Michel Foucault died of AIDS in 1984 before he could finish his magnum opus, an exploration of the idea of sexuality as it has evolved over the centuries. Many books have been written about sex (Camille Paglia's "Sexual Personae" is perhaps the most notable example, and represents the American writer's vehement response to Foucault's provocative thesis) in the tumultuous 20th century. None of them is as original in its conception, as scrupulous in its research, and as controversial in its ideas as Michel Foucault's "The History of Sexuality". Now regarded as the greatest openly gay philosopher in the Western tradition, Foucault, the philosopher of the "episteme", argued that human history takes place in discontinuous, radical, and transformative breaks (as opposed to continuous, evolutionary, and incremental changes) that have absolutely nothing to do with one another. Thus, a Renaissance artist will not understand anything that comes after him whereas his Modern counterpart understands him only in Modernist terms, a conceptual understanding that has little to do with what really happened in history, and how it transformed the human being. Yet Foucault's own work has a retrospective continuity and overarching concerns; it is dedicated to uncovering (what he called an "archaeology" rather than history proper) and demonstrating how social structures have turned the overwhelming majority of human beings, especially minorities, who include women (while they have outnumbered men, they are treated as a minority by a patriarchal social order), the poor, the mad, the criminal, the sick, and the homosexual, into virtual slaves of seemingly immutable structures invented by each new epoch to keep the rich and powerful in control. Foucault deployed his genius as a philosopher, phenomenologist, and political thinker to help make people re-think and seek new answers to the question, "What does it mean to be human?", the only philosophical question worth asking. He single-handedly exposed Western Enlightenment as a lie, and by extension, all of its modern versions, whether it be European, British or American "analytical thinking". The most important French thinker of his time, he was alienated as a Frenchman, and wished that his country would collapse, making him more, not less, wildly popular with his fellow Frenchmen. His seminal influence on every aspect of Western thought and art has been "destructive" in the most positive sense of the word: "He has given received wisdom a mighty blow from which it will never recover" (Christopher Lasch). A "must-have" title for Michel Foucault collectors. This title has been out-of-print as a hardcover for a very long time. This is one of very few copies of the First American Edition still available online and is in unusually fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a beauty. A rare copy thus. The greatest French philosopher of the 20th century. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER MICHEL FOUCAULT TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). $150.00 |
