The grisly spectacle of public executions and torture of centuries ago has been replaced by the penal system in western society - but has anything really changed?

In his revolutionary work on control and power relations in our public institutions, Michel Foucault argues that the development of prisons, police organizations and legal hierarchies has merely changed the focus of domination from our bodies to our souls. Even schools, factories, barracks and hospitals, in which an individual's time is controlled hour by hour, are part of a disciplinary society.

'Foucault's genius is called forth into the eloquent clarity of his passions ... his best book' Washington Post