3 Review(s)

‘We are at war with one another; a battle front runs through the whole of society, continuously and permanently’. One of the most provocative and polemical thinkers of modern times, Michel Foucault exposed the systems of power inherent in all aspects of society with his revolutionary studies of sexuality, madness and punishment. In these masterly lectures given at the Collège de France in 1975–1976 and published here for the first time in English, he turns his attention to the idea of war. Although we see wars in terms of weapons and battles, Foucault contends that there is in fact a constant ‘silent war’ in society, where all power relations and political institutions are based on force, conflict and domination. In this sense, he argues, politics is actually ‘a continuation of war by other means’. Foucault colours his vivid argument with historical examples from early England and France, describing bloody clashes between the Saxons and Normans, the Gauls and Franks, to explain how the war raging beneath society is one between two ‘races’ or peoples: one which possesses power and one which does not. En route, there are brilliant impromptu digressions into subjects as diverse as the Trojan myth, Nazi Germany and the gothic novel. This politically-charged re-reading of history and society marks an important stage in the development of Foucault’s radical thoughts on power, which is defined not as an external force, but rather as a subtle form of control that we all consent to uphold.