The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1

An Introduction

De: Michel Foucault

Narrado por: Michael Page

Why has there been such an explosion of discussion about sex in the West since the 17th century? Here, one of France's greatest intellectuals explores the evolving social, economic, and political forces that have shaped our attitudes toward sex. In a book that is at once controversial and seductive, Michel Foucault describes how we are in the process of making a science of sex which is devoted to the analysis of desire, rather than the increase of pleasure.

©1976 Editions Gallimard; English translation copyright 1978 by Random House, Inc. (P)2016 Tantor

Title might have been

It is a good book, worthy of pondering. Though less titillating, a more accurate title would be some variation of A History of the Regulation of Reproduction from the 1600s to the Present. I want other customers to know what they are getting before hand.

A great listen for artists

The recording is a little choppy at times and I become confused with the idea that is being explained for this. Foucault describes his thoughts thoroughly but I listened through the book a second time and understand the overall work much better. This will need a third listen all the same. A friend of mine was reading this before Audible existed and mentioned how difficult this was. Great material to include in a project thanks to Audible.

Incisive production

Great production. Please consider producing Volumes 2 and 3 of this History of Sexuality work.

Grateful for Foucault on Audible!

I loved the storying of this historical account: Foucault starts with a global perspective of his analytics then sifts through the minutiae, finalizing with a summary not without humor. I am eager to listen to it all again. I slowed down the audio to .85x the original speed so I could absorb the thick descriptions.

Read before get married

Excellent explanation of how capitalism got their hands on such private matter as sex. Mind blowing.

Essential Foucault

A cornerstone of Foucault's style of historical philosophical criticism. Dense yet accessible, self-aware, provocative.

F*ckault

I listened to this as an academic exercise. In it you find the genesis to all the convoluted and contradictory arguments of critical race and gender theory and all the other offshoots. Hard to grasp on purpose by the author, because first you have to translate what he is actually saying out of all his deliberate obfuscation of created terms and convoluted prose and then you have to judge if what you understood he said is true. The typical semantic games of left of the spectrum speech.

The first few minutes were promising

But it very quickly devolved into multi syllabic prattle for it's own sake. Returned it.

Rambling story telling

cites no sources whatsoever, just makes conclusions and we have to take his word for it. I'm baffled as to how anyone thinks this guy is smart.

What a tool!

This guy was tenured? I’d be outraged and ask for my taxes back that paid his salary. There is literally ZERO analysis on the topics brought up - ZERO proposed metrics to validate or invalidate outcomes - ZERO answers to simple things like “why”, “how”.

He touches on topics or concepts “sex intersects powers” or wait no.. “sexuality intersects power”… or wait no “sexuality enabled capitalism”… and then NOTHING. No data. No analysis. Just a really long winded ramble on some ideas that might make you take a pause and go “Oh… okay.. tell me more” and then he doesn’t, because this guy is not an academic and his words have no credibility - not founded in the scientific process, not anything to “build upon”. For example “we’ll if this is true, then we should be able to test X”. Nothing. Big disappointment. This guy is a total tool.