Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1975-76
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CONTENTS
Introduction: A r n o l d I. D a v i d s o n
two 14 J A N U A R Y 1976
War and power. - Philosophy and the limits of power. - Law and
royal power. - Law, domination, and subjugation. - Analytics of
power: questions of method. - Theory of sovereignty. - Disciplinary
power. - Rule and norm.
three 21 J A N U A R Y 1976
five 4 FEBRUARY 1 9 7 6 87
Answer to a question on anti-Semitism. - Hobbes on war and
sovereignty. - The discourse on the Conquest in England: royalists,
parliamentarians, and Levellers. - The binary schema and political
historicism. - What Hobbes wanted to eliminate.
e l e v e n 17 M A R C H 1 9 7 6 2?9
From the power of sovereignty to power over life. - Make live and
let die. - From man as body to man as species: the birth of
biopower. - Biopower's fields of application. - Population. - Of
death, and of the death of Franco in particular. - Articulations of
discipline and regulation: workers' housing, sexuality, and the
norm. - Biopower and racism. - Racism: functions and
domains. - Nazism. - Socialism.
Index 295
FOREWORD
1 The candidacy presentation drawn up by Michel Foucault ends with the formula "[I]t
would be necessarv to undertake the history of systems of thought." "Titres et travaux," in
Dits et e'crits, ed. Daniel Defert and Francois Ewald (Paris: Gallimard), vol. 1, p. 846; trans..
"Candidacv Presentation: College de France," in Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth, ed. Paul Rabi-
now, The Essential Works of Michel Foucault, 7954-1984 (London: Allen Lane, The Penguin
Press, 1 9 9 4 ) , vol. 1, p. 9.
2 It was published bv Editions Galhmard in March 1971 under the title VOrdre du discours.
The English translation bv Rupert Swver, "Orders of Discourse," is appended to the Ll.S.
edition of The Archaeology of Knowledge; it does not appear in Ll.K. editions.
X Foreword
3
to half the hours can t a k e the form of s e m i n a r s ) . Each y e a r , they are
r e q u i r e d to give an account of the original research that they have
u n d e r t a k e n , w h i c h means that the content of their l e c t u r e s must a l
w a y s be new. A n y o n e is free to attend the lectures and seminars; there
is no enrollment, a n d no d i p l o m a s are r e q u i r e d . The professors do
1
not a w a r d any diplomas." In the vocabulary of the College de France,
its professors do not have students, b u t auditeurs or listeners.
M i c h e l Foucault gave his lectures on W e d n e s d a y s from the b e g i n
ning of J a n u a r y to the end of M a r c h . The very large audience, made u p
of students, teachers, researchers, and those w h o attended simply out of
curiosity, m a n y of t h e m from abroad, filled two of the College de
France's l e c t u r e t h e a t e r s . M i c h e l Foucault often complained a b o u t the
distance t h i s could put b e t w e e n h i m a n d his " a u d i e n c e " and a b o u t the
5
w a y the l e c t u r e format left so l i t t l e room for d i a l o g u e . He d r e a m e d of
holding a seminar in w h i c h t r u l y collective w o r k could be done. He
m a d e v a r i o u s a t t e m p t s to hold s u c h a seminar. In his last y e a r s , he d e
v o t e d long p e r i o d s after his l e c t u r e s to a n s w e r i n g questions from his l i s
teners.
This is h o w G e r a r d Petitjean, a journalist on Le Nouvel Observateur,
captured the atmosphere:
7 April 1975.
Xll Foreword
7 Cf. in particular "Nietzsche, la genealogie, l'histoire," in Dits et krits, vol. 2, p. 137. English
translation by Donald F. Brouchard and Sherry Simon, "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History," in
James Faubion, ed., Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology: Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984,
Volume 11 (London: Allen Lane, 1 9 9 8 ) , pp. 3 6 9 - 9 2 .
8 Particular use has been made of the recordings made by Gilbert Burlet and Jacques La
grange. These have been deposited at the College de France and in the Fonds Michel Foucault
held by Institut Memoires de l'Edition Contemporaine.
Foreword xm
A r n o l d I. Davidson
T H I S V O L U M E I N A U G U R A T E S T H E E n g l i s h - l a n g u a g e p u b l i c a t i o n of
One of the most emblematic, a n d often cited, lines of the first volume
of Foucault's history of s e x u a l i t y , La Volonte de savoir, p u b l i s h e d in
1976, the year of this course, is the trenchant r e m a r k "In thought and
9
political analysis w e have still not cut off the head of the k i n g . " In
s t u d y i n g the historico-political discourse of w a r in this course, Fou
cault s h o w s us one w a y to detach ourselves from the philosophico-
j u n d i c a l discourse of sovereignty and the l a w that has so dominated
our thought and political a n a l y s i s . In an i m p o r t a n t lecture g i v e n i n
Brazil in 1 9 7 6 , and unfortunately still not translated into English,
Foucault underscores his claim that "the West has never h a d another
s y s t e m of representation, of formulation, and of a n a l y s i s of p o w e r t h a n
1 0
that of the l a w , the s y s t e m of the l a w . " M a n y of F o u c a u l t ' s w r i t i n g s ,
lectures, and i n t e r v i e w s of the m i d - to late 1 9 7 0 s are responses to
this conceptual impasse, are a t t e m p t s to a r t i c u l a t e alternative w a y s of
a n a l y z i n g power.
Foucault's concern d u r i n g this period w a s both w i t h the r e p r e s e n
tation of power and w i t h the actual functioning of power. The focus
of this 1 9 7 6 course is on one a l t e r n a t i v e c o n c e p t u a l i z a t i o n of power,
a mode of thought that a n a l y z e s p o w e r r e l a t i o n s in t e r m s of the model
of w a r , that looks for the p r i n c i p l e of i n t e l l i g i b i l i t y of politics in the
general form of w a r . Foucault himself, discussing the use of the notion
of " s t r u g g l e " in c e r t a i n political discourses, posed the following q u e s
tion:
17
analyses of statements. Treat statements in t h e i r functioning."
nonlinguistic level of the analysis of discourse is in fact the level of
strategic i n t e l l i g i b i l i t y .
T h i s model of analysis i s developed further in Foucault's 1974 l e c
tures at the C a t h o l i c Pontifical U n i v e r s i t y of Rio de J a n e i r o , "La V e -
r i t e et les formes j u r i d i q u e s , " w h e r e Foucault urges us to consider t h e
18
facts of discourse a s strategic g a m e s .
single-page text, "Le Discours ne doit pas etre p r i s comme . . . , " a
text that appears in Dits et ecrits just before the course s u m m a r y of
"Society Must Be Defended," Foucault describes this level of analysis as
the political analysis of discourse in w h i c h "it is a matter of e x h i b i t i n g
9
discourse as a strategic field.'" H e r e discourse is c h a r a c t e r i z e d as a
battle, a struggle, a place a n d an instrument of confrontation, "a
w e a p o n of p o w e r , of control, of subjection, of qualification a n d of
20
disqualification.'' Discourse does not s i m p l y e x p r e s s or reproduce
a l r e a d y constituted social relations:
u
10. Michel Foucault, Les Mailles du pouvoir," in Dits et ecrits, vol. 4, p. 186.
11. Michel Foucault, "L'Oeil du pouvoir," in Dits et ecrits, vol. ), p. 2 0 6 .
12. Michel Foucault, "La Politique est la continuation de la guerre par d'autres moyens," in
Dits et ecrits, vol. 2, p. 704.
1 ) . Michel Foucault, La Volonte de savoir, p. 12).
14. See, for example, Michel Foucault, "Nietzsche, la genealogie, l'histoire," in Dits el ecrits,
vol. 2. A complete study of this issue must await the publication of Foucault's 1971
course at the College de France, also entitled "La Volonte de savoir." The course summarv
can be found in Dits et ecrits, vol. 2. See also Daniel Defert, "Le 'dispositif de guerre'
comme analyseur des rapports de pouvoir," in Lectures de Michel Foucault: A propos de "II
faut defend?? la soct'e'te," ed. Jean-Claude Zancanni (Lyon: ENS Editions, n.d.).
15. See, among other texts, Michel Foucault, "Des Supplices aux cellules," in Dits el e'crits,
vol. ) , pp. 426-27.
16. A tape recording of this lecture can be found in the Centre Michel Foucault.
17. Cited in the "Chronologic" Dits el ecrits, vol. 1, p. 3l. For further discussion see my essay,
"Structures and Strategies of Discourse: Remarks Towards a History of Foucault's Phi
losophy of Language," in Foucault and His Interlocutors, ed. Arnold I. Davidson (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1 9 9 7 ) .
18. Michel Foucault, "La Vente et les formes jundiques," in Dits et ecrits, vol. 2, p. 5)9.
19. Michel Foucault, "Le Discours ne doit pas etre pns comme . . . , " in Dits et ecrits, vol. ),
p. 12).
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid., p. 124.
22. See also Michel Foucault, "Dialogue sur le pouvoir," in Dits et ecrits, vol. ), p. 465.
2). Michel Foucault, La Volonte de savoir, pp. 1)2-)5.
24. Michel Foucault, "La Verite et les (ormes jundiques," in Dits et ecrits, vol. 2, p. 551-
25. Michel Foucauit, La Volonte de savoir, pp. 1 1 9 - 2 0 .
26. Ibid., p. 1 2 0 .
"Society Must Be Defended"
one
7 JANUARY 1 9 7 6
those secret societies, no doubt the oldest and the most characteristic
in t h e W e s t , one of those strangely i n d e s t r u c t i b l e secret societies that
w e r e , I t h i n k , u n k n o w n i n a n t i q u i t y and w h i c h w e r e formed in the
early C h r i s t i a n era, p r o b a b l y at the t i m e of the first monasteries, on
the fringes of invasions, fires, a n d forests. I a m t a l k i n g about the great,
tender, a n d w a r m freemasonry of useless e r u d i t i o n .
Except that it w a s not just a l i k i n g for t h i s freemasonry that led
me to do w h a t I've been doing. It seems to m e that w e could justify
the w o r k w e ' v e been doing, in a somewhat e m p i r i c a l a n d h a p h a z a r d
w a y on b o t h m y p a r t and yours, b y saying that it w a s q u i t e in k e e p i n g
w i t h a c e r t a i n period; w i t h the v e r y l i m i t e d p e r i o d w e have been
living through for the last ten or fifteen years, t w e n t y at the most. I
am t a l k i n g about a period in w h i c h w e can observe two phenomena
w h i c h w e r e , if not really important, r a t h e r interesting. On the one
hand, this h a s been a period c h a r a c t e r i z e d b y w h a t w e might call the
efficacy of dispersed a n d discontinuous offensives. I am t h i n k i n g of
many things, of, for instance, the strange efficacy, w h e n it c a m e to
j a m m i n g the w o r k i n g s of the p s y c h i a t r i c institution, of the discourse,
the discourses—and they really w e r e v e r y localized—of a n t i p s y c h i a t r y .
And y o u k n o w perfectly w e l l that they w e r e not supported, a r e not
supported, b y any overall systematization, no m a t t e r w h a t t h e i r points
of reference w e r e and are. I a m t h i n k i n g of the original reference to
existential analysis,' and of contemporary references to, b r o a d l y s p e a k
2
ing, M a r x i s m or Reich's theories. I a m also t h i n k i n g of the strange
efficacy of the a t t a c k s that have been m a d e on, say, m o r a l i t y a n d the
traditional s e x u a l h i e r a r c h y ; t h e y too referred in only v a g u e a n d d i s
3
tant t e r m s to Reich or M a r c u s e . I a m also t h i n k i n g of the efficacy of
the a t t a c k s on t h e j u d i c i a r y a n d penal a p p a r a t u s , some of w h i c h w e r e
very d i s t a n t l y related to the g e n e r a l — a n d fairly dubious—notion of
"class justice," w h i l e others w e r e basically related, albeit almost as
distantly, to an anarchist thematic. I am also t h i n k i n g much more
specifically of the efficacy of something—I hesitate to call it a book—
like Anti-Oedipus? w h i c h referred to, w h i c h refers to n o t h i n g but i t s
o w n p r o d i g i o u s theoretical c r e a t i v i t y — t h a t book, t h a t event, or t h a t
6 "SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
West to see for the first time that it w a s possible to analyze political
power as w a r . A n d I will t r y to trace t h i s d o w n to the moment w h e n
race s t r u g g l e and class struggle became, at the end of the nineteenth
century, the t w o g r e a t schemata that w e r e used to identify the p h e
nomenon of w a r and the relationship of force w i t h i n political society.
20 "SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
transversalite, Essai d'analyse institutionnelle (Pans: Maspero, 1972). Its logic is that of "be
coming" and "intensities."
6. Michel Foucault is referring to the debate about the concept of the episteme and the
status of discontinuity that was opened up bv the publication of Les Mots et les choses:
une archaeologie des sciences humaines (Pans: Galhmard, 1 9 6 6 ) (English translation: The
Order of Things [London: Tavistock, 1 9 7 0 ] ) . He replied to criticisms in a series oi the
oretical and methodological mt'ses au point. See in particular "Reponse a une question,"
Esprit, May 1 9 6 8 , repnnted in Dits et ecrits vol. 1, pp. 673-95; "Reponse au Cercle
d*epistemologie," CaJiiers pour /'analyse 9 ( 1 9 6 8 ) , pp. 9 - 4 0 , repnnted m Dits et ecrits vol.
1, pp. 694-731; English translation: "On the Archaeology of the Science: Response to the
Epistemology Circle," Essential Works vol. 2, pp. 297-353.
7. A t that time, a depute' in the Parti Communiste Frangais.
8.Cf. G. W. F. Hegel, Grundimien der Philosophic des Rechtes (Berlin, 1821), pp. 182-340
(French translation: Principesde la philosophic du droit [Pans: V n n , 1975]); Hegel's Philosophy
of Right, translated with notes by T. M. Knox (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952); Sigmund
Freud, "Das Unbewussten," in Internationale Zjitschrifte fur drt^iche Psychoanalyse, vol. 3
( 1 9 1 5 ) (English translation: "The Unconscious," in Pelican Freud Library, Vol. 11: On
Metapsychology: The Theory of Psychoanalysis [Harmondsworth: Penguin, 19&4J); and Die
Zxkunft emer Illusion (Leipzig/Vienna/Zurich: Internationaler Psychoanalvtischer Verlag,
1927) (French translation: VAvenir d'une illusion [Paris: Denoel, 1932], reprinted Pans:
PUF, 1 9 9 5 ; English translation: The Future of an Illusion, in The Pelican Freud Library, Vol.
12: Civilisation, Society and Religion, Group Psychology, Civilisation and Its Discontents and Other
Works [Harmondsworth: Penguin, I 9 8 5 J ) ; on Reich, cf. note 2 above.
9. Foucault alludes to the well-known formulation of Carl von Clausewitz's principle {Vom
Knege book 1, chap. 1, xxiv, in Hinterlassene Werke, bd. 1-2-3 [Berlin, 1832] ): "War is a
mere continuation of policy by other means.. . . War is not merely a political act. but
also a truly political instrument, a continuation of political commerce, a carrying out of
the same by other means." On War, edited with an introduction by Anatol Rapoport
(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1 9 8 2 ) (French translation: De la guerre [Pans: Editions de
Minuit, 1 9 5 5 ] ) .
10. This promise was not kept. A lecture on "repression" is, however, intercalated in the
manuscript; it was presumably given at a foreign university. Foucault returns to this
question in La Volonte de savoir (Paris: Gallimard, 1 9 7 6 ) (English translation by Robert
Hurley: The Histoty of Sexuality, Volume I: An Introduction [Harmondsworth: Penguin,
1981]).
two
14 J A N U A R Y 1 9 7 6
power, and for the benefit of royal power. When in later centuries
this j u r i d i c a l edifice escaped from royal control, w h e n it w a s t u r n e d
against royal power, the issue at stake w a s a l w a y s , and a l w a y s w o u l d
be, the limits of that power, the question of its prerogatives. In other
w o r d s , I believe that the k i n g w a s the central character in the entire
W e s t e r n j u r i d i c a l edifice. The g e n e r a l system, or at least the general
organization of the W e s t e r n j u r i d i c a l system, w a s all about the king:
the king, his r i g h t s , his power, and the possible l i m i t s of h i s power.
That, basically, is w h a t the general system, or at least the general
organization, of the W e s t e r n j u r i d i c a l system is all about. No matter
whether the jurists w e r e the k i n g ' s servants or his adversaries, the
great edifices of juridical thought and j u r i d i c a l k n o w l e d g e w e r e a l w a y s
about royal power.
It w a s all about r o y a l p o w e r in t w o senses. Either it had to be
demonstrated that royal p o w e r w a s invested in a juridical a r m a t u r e ,
that the monarch w a s i n d e e d the l i v i n g body of sovereignty, and that
his power, even when absolute, w a s perfectly in keeping w i t h a basic
right; or it had to be d e m o n s t r a t e d that the p o w e r of the sovereign
had to be l i m i t e d , that it had to submit to certain rules, and that, if
that power w e r e to retain i t s legitimacy, it h a d to be exercised w i t h i n
certain l i m i t s . From the M i d d l e A g e s o n w a r d , the essential role of the
theory of r i g h t has been to establish the l e g i t i m a c y of power; the major
or central problem around w h i c h the theory of r i g h t is organized is
the problem of sovereignty. To say that the problem of sovereignty is
the central problem of right in W e s t e r n societies means that the e s
sential function of the technique a n d discourse of right is to dissolve
the element of domination in p o w e r a n d to replace that domination,
w h i c h has to be reduced or masked, w i t h t w o things: the legitimate
rights of the sovereign on the one hand, a n d the legal obligation to
obey on the other. The system of right is completely centered on the
k i n g ; it is, in other w o r d s , u l t i m a t e l y an elimination of domination
and its consequences.
In previous y e a r s w h e n w e w e r e t a l k i n g about the various l i t t l e
things I have mentioned, the general project w a s , basically, to invert
the general direction of the analysis that has, I think, been the entire
74 January 1976 27
1. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme and Power of a Common-Wealth Eidesiasticai/
and Civill { London, 1651). The I-a tin translation of the text, which was in fact a new
version, was published in Amsterdam in 1 6 6 8 .
2. Foucault is alluding to the famous frontispiece to the "Head" edition of Leviathan pub
lished by Andrew Crooke. It depicts the bodv of a state constituted bv its subjects, with
the head representing the sovereign, who holds a sword in one hand and a crosier in
the other. The basic attributes of civil and ecclesiastical power are depicted below it.
3- Wilhelm Reich, Der Einbruch der Sexua/moraL
4. Reimut Reich, Sexualitdt und Klassenkampf: %ur Abwehr rtpressiver Ensublimierung ( Frankfurt
am Main: Verlag Neue Kntik, 1 9 6 8 ) (French translation: Sexualiteet lutte de classe [Pans:
Maspero, 1 9 6 9 ] ) .
5. The thirteen parlements of the Ancien Regime were high courts of appeal and had no
legislative powers, though the parlement de Paris did attempt to usurp such powers.
[Trans. ]
6. The reference is to the "Napoleonic codes," or in other words the Code civil of 1804,
the Code d e s t r u c t i o n criminelle of 1808, and the Code penal of 1810.
three
21 J A N U A R Y 1 9 7 6
The general project, both in previous vears and this vear, is to trv
to release or emancipate this a n a l v s i s of power from three assump-
21 January 1976 45
and State apparatuses, beneath the l a w s , and so on, will w e hear and
discover a sort of p r i m i t i v e and permanent w a r ? I would like to begin
by a s k i n g t h i s question, not forgetting that we will also have to raise
a w h o l e series of other questions. I w i l l t r y to deal w i t h them in vears
to come. A s a first a p p r o x i m a t i o n , w e can simplv say that they include
the following questions. C a n the p h e n o m e n o n of w a r be regarded a s
p r i m a r y w i t h respect to other r e l a t i o n s ( r e l a t i o n s of i n e q u a l i t y , d i s
s y m m e t r i e s , divisions of labor, relations of exploitation, et c e t e r a ) ?
M u s t i t be r e g a r d e d as p r i m a r y ? C a n w e and must w e group together
in the general mechanism, the general form, k n o w n a s w a r , p h e n o m
ena such as antagonism, r i v a l r y , confrontation, and struggles b e t w e e n
i n d i v i d u a l s , g r o u p s , or classes? W e m i g h t also ask w h e t h e r notions
derived from w h a t w a s k n o w n in the eighteenth c e n t u r y and even
the nineteenth century as the art of w a r ( s t r a t e g y , tactics, et c e t e r a )
constitute in themselves a v a l i d and a d e q u a t e i n s t r u m e n t for the a n a l
ysis of p o w e r r e l a t i o n s . W e could, and must, also ask ourselves if
m i l i t a r y institutions, a n d the practices that s u r r o u n d t h e m — a n d in
more general t e r m s all the t e c h n i q u e s that are used to fight a w a r —
are, whichever w a y w e look at them, directly or indirectly, the nucleus
of political institutions. A n d finally, the first question I w o u l d like to
s t u d y this year is this: H o w , w h e n , and w h y w a s it noticed or i m a g
ined that w h a t is going on beneath and in power relations is a w a r ?
W h e n , how, and w h y d i d someone come u p w i t h the idea that it is
a sort of u n i n t e r r u p t e d battle that shapes peace, and that the civil
o r d e r — i t s b a s i s , its essence, its essential mechanisms—is basically a n
o r d e r of b a t t l e ? W h o came u p w i t h the i d e a that the civil order is
an order of b a t t l e ? [ . . . ] Who s a w w a r just beneath the surface of
peace; w h o sought in t h e noise and confusion of w a r , in t h e m u d of
battles, t h e principle that a l l o w s u s to u n d e r s t a n d order, t h e State,
its institutions, and its h i s t o r y ?
That, then, i s the question I am g o i n g to p u r s u e a bit in coming
lectures, a n d p e r h a p s for the rest of the year. Basically, the question
can be put very simply, a n d that is how I b e g a n to put it mvself:
Who, basically, had the idea of i n v e r t i n g C l a u s e w i t z ' s principle, and
who thought of saying: "It is quite possible that w a r is the continu-
SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
0
dissolved.' In a discourse such as this, being on one side and not the
other means that you are in a better position to speak the truth. It
is the fact of being on one side—the decentered position—that makes
it possible to interpret the truth, to denounce the illusions and errors
that are being used—by your adversaries—to make you believe we
are living in a world in which order and peace have been restored.
"The more I decenter myself, the better I can see the truth; the more
I accentuate the relationship of force, and the harder I fight, the more
effectively I can deploy the truth ahead of me and use it to fight,
survive, and win." And conversely, if the relationship of force sets
truth free, the truth in its turn will come into play—and will, ulti
mately, be sought—only insofar as it can indeed become a weapon
within the relationship of force. Either the truth makes you stronger,
or the truth shifts the balance, accentuates the dissymmetries, and
finally gives the victory to one side rather than the other. Truth is an
additional force, and it can be deployed only on the basis of a rela
tionship of force. The fact that the truth is essentially part of a re
lationship of force, of dissymmetry, decentering, combat, and war, is
inscribed in this type of discourse. Ever since Greek philosophy,
philosophico-juridical discourse has a l w a y s worked with the assump
tion of a pacified universality, but it is now being seriously called
into question or, quite simply, cynically ignored.
1. Edward Coke's most important works are A Book of Entries ( London, 1614); Commentaries
on Littleton (London, 1628); A Treatise of Bail and Mainprise (London, 16)5); Institutes of
the Laws of England (London, vol. 1, 1628; vol. 2, 1642; vols. )-4, 1644); Reports ( London,
vols. 1-11, 1600-1615; vol. 12, 1656; vol. 1), 1659). On Coke, see the lecture of 4 February
in the present volume.
2. On Lilburne, see the lecture of 4 February in the present volume.
). On H. de Boulainvilhers, see the lectures of 11 February, 18 February, and 25 February
in the present volume.
4. Most of Freret's works were first published in the Memoircs de VAcademic des Sciences.
They were subsequently collected in his Oeuvres completes, 20 vols. (Pans, 1 7 9 6 - 1 7 9 9 ) .
See, inter alia, De I'origine des Francois etde leur etablissement dans I a Gaule (vol. 5 ), Recherches
historiques sur les moeurs et le gouvemement des Francois, dans les divers temps de la monarchic
(vol. 6), Reflexions sur I'etude des anciennes histoires et sur le degre de certitude de leurspreuves
(vol. 7), Vues generates sur I'origine et le melange des anciennes nations et sur la maniere d'en
etudier I'histoire (vol. 18), and Observations sur les Meivvingiens (vol. 20). On Freret, see the
lecture of 18 February in the present volume.
5. Joachim, comte d'Estaing, Dissertation sur la noblesse d'extraction et sur les origines des fiefs, des
surnoms et des atmoiries (Pans, 1690).
6. Foucault's lecture on 10 March, and now in the present volume, is based mainly on E.-J.
Sieves, Qu'est<e que le Tiers Etat? (1789). (Cf. the reprinted editions, Paris: PUF, 1982
and Pans: Flammanon, 1 9 8 8 . )
7. Ct. F. Buonarroti, Conspiration pour Vegalite, dite de Babeuf, suivie du proces auquel elle donna
lieu et les pieces fusticatives, 2 vols. (Brussels, 1828).
8. The historical works by Augustin Thierry referred to by Foucault, particularly in his
lecture of 10 March, are as follows: Vues des revolutions d'Angleterre (Pans, 1917); Histoire
de la conqucte de PAngletcrre par les Normands, de ses causes et de ces suites jusqu'd nos jours
(Pans, 1825); Lettres sur thistoire de France pour servir d'introduction a I'etude de cette histoire
(Pans, 1827); Dix ans d'etudes historiques (Paris, 18)4); Re cits des temps mewvingiens, precedes
de considerations sur I'histoire de France (Pans, 18)4); Essais sur I'histoire de la formation et des
progris du Tiers-Etat (Pans, 185)).
9. See in particular A. V. Courtet de I'lslc La Science politique jondee sur la science de I'homme
(Paris, 18)7).
10. CI. J.-P. Vernant, Les Origines de la pensee grecque ( Pans: PUF, 1965), especially chapters
7 and 8; My the et pensee chevies Grecs: Etudes de psychologic histon'que (Pans: La Decouverte,
1965), especially chapters ), 4, and 7; My the et societe' en Grice ancicnne (Pans: Seuil, 1974 );
J. P. Vernant and P. Vidal-Naquet, Mythe et tragedie en Grece ancienne-(Pans: La Decou
verte, 1972), particularly chapter ). English translations: The Origins of Greek Thought
(London: Methuen, 1982); Myth and Thought among the Greeks (London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul, 1982); Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece, tr. Janet Lloyd (New York: Zone
Books, 1 9 9 0 ) .
11. For Solon (see m particular fragment 16 in the Diehl edition), the reader is referred to
the analysis of "mesure" made by Michel Foucault in his lectures at the College de France
in 1970-1971 on The Will to Knowledge. On Kant, the reader is simply referred to "What
Is Enlightenment?" trans. Catherine Porter, in Paul Rabinow, ed., The Foucault Reader
( Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986), pp. )2-50, reprinted with emendations in Ethics: The
Essential Works, vol. 1, pp. )0)-20 (French original, Dits et ecrits vol. 4, pp. 562-84);
"Qu'est-ce que les Lumieres?" Dits et ecrits vol. 4, pp. 6 7 9 - 8 8 (English translation by
Colin Gordon, "Kant on Enlightenment and Revolution," Economy and Society, vol. 15,
no. 1 [February 1986], pp. 8 8 - 9 6 ) ; and the lecture given to the Societe Franchise de
Philosophic on 27 May 1978 on "Qu'est-ce que la critique," Bulletin de la Societe Framboise
de Philosophic April-June 1 9 9 0 , pp. )5-67; see also I. Kant, Zum weigen Fn'eden: ein philoso-
64 "SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
phischer Enwurf ( Konigsberg, 1795; see m particular the second edition of 1796) in Werke
in Tg'olf Banden (Frankfurt am Main: Inse] Verlag, 1968), vol. 11, pp. 191-251; Der Sreti
der Fakultdten in drei abschnitten (Konigsberg, 1798), ibid., pp. 261-393. (English transla
tion: Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch and "The Conflict ol Faculties," in Political
Writings, ed. Hanns Reiss, trans. H. B Nisbct [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
1 9 7 0 ] . ) Foucault owned the complete works of Kant in Ernst Cassirer's 12-volume
edition ( Berlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1912-1922), and Ernst Cassirer's Kants Leben un Lehre
(Berlin, 1921) (English translation by Haden James, Kant's Life and Work [New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1983]).
12. The interpolation is based upon the course summary for the year 1975-1976, in Dits et
e'crtts, vol 3. no. 187, pp. 124-130.
13. On Machiavelli, see the lecture ot 1 February 1978 ("Governmentality") in the course
ol lectures given at the College de France on "Securite territoire et population en 1977-
1978" (English translation: "Governmentality," in Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and
Peter Miller, eds.. The Foucault Effect: Studies in Covemmentality [Hemel Hempstead: Har
vester Wheatsheaf, 1991 ]); "Omnes et Singulatim: Towards a Critique of Political Rea
son" (1981), in The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, ed. Sterling M. McMurrin, vol. 2
(Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1981); T h e Political Technology ot Individuals" (1982), Dits et ecrits vol. 3, no. 239, and
vol. 4, no. 219, no. 364, in Luther H. Martin, Huck Gutman, and Patrick H. Hucton,
eds„ Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault ( London: Tavistock, 1988).
14- On Augustin Thierry, see note 8 above. For Amedee Thierry, see his Fiistoires des Gaulois,
depuis les temps les plus recules jusqu'a I'entiere soumission de la Gaule a la domination mmaine
(Paris, 1828); Histoire de la Gaule sous /'administration mmaine ( Pans, 1840-1847).
four
28 JANUARY 1976
phischer Enwurf (Konigsberg, 1795; sec in particular the second edition of 1 7 9 6 ) in Werke
in qrilf Bdnien (Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1968), vol. 11, pp. 191-251; Der Sreti
der Fakultdten in drei abschnitten (Konigsberg, 1798), ibid., pp. 261-393- (English transla
tion: Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch and "The Conflict of Faculties," in Political
Writings, ed. Hanns Reiss, trans. H. B. Nisbet [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1 9 7 0 ] . ) Foucault owned the complete works of Kant in Ernst Cassirer's 12-volume
edition (Berlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1912-1922), and Ernst Cassirer's Hants Leben un Lehre
(Berlin, 1 9 2 1 ) (English translation by Haden James, Kant's Life and Work [New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1983]).
12. The interpolation is based upon the course summarv for the year 1975-1976, in Dits et
e'crits, vol 3, no. 187, pp. 124-130.
13. On Machiavelli, see the lecture of 1 February 1 9 7 8 ("Governmentahty") in the course
of lectures given at the College de France on "Securite territoire et population en 1977-
1978" (English translation: "Governmentality," in Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and
Peter Miller, eds., The Foucault Effect: Studies in Govemmenta/ity [Hemel Hempstead: Har
vester Wheatsheaf, 1991 ]); "Omnes et Singulatim: Towards a Critique of Political Rea
son" ( 1 9 8 1 ) , in The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, ed. Sterling M. McMurrin, vol. 2
( Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1 9 8 1 ) : "The Political Technology of Individuals" ( 1 9 8 2 ) , Dits et e'crits vol. 3, no. 239, and
vol. 4, no. 219, no. 364, in Luther H. Martin, Huck Gutman, and Patrick H. Hucton,
eds., Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault (London: Tavistock, 1 9 8 8 ) .
14. On Augustin Thierrv, see note 8 above. For Amedee Thierrv, see his Histoires des Gaulois,
depuis les temps les plus recules jusqu'a I'entiere soumission de la Gaule a la domination romaine
(Pans, 1828); Histoire de la Gaule sous ^administration romaine ( Paris, 1840-1847).
four
28 JANUARY 1976
I think, finally, that this history of the race struggle that appears
in the s i x t e e n t h a n d seventeenth centuries is a counterhistory in a
different sense too. It is a counterhistory in a s i m p l e r or more ele
m e n t a r y sense, but also in a stronger sense. The point is that, far from
being a ritual inherent in the exercise, deployment, and reinforcement
28 January 7 9 76
can see it being used to disqualify colonized subraces. This is, then,
a mobile discourse, a polyvalent discourse. A l t h o u g h its origins he in
t h e M i d d l e Ages, it is not so m a r k e d by them that it can have only
one political meaning.
Second comment: Although this discourse speaks of races, a n d al
though the term " r a c e " appears at a very early stage, it is quite ob
v i o u s that the w o r d " r a c e " itself is not p i n n e d to a stable biological
m e a n i n g . A n d yet the w o r d is not completely free-floating. U l t i m a t e l y ,
it designates a c e r t a i n h i s t o n c o - p o h t i c a l divide. It is no doubt w i d e ,
but it is relatively s t a b l e . One might s a y — a n d this discourse does
say—that t w o races exist w h e n e v e r one w r i t e s the history of t w o
g r o u p s w h i c h do not, at least to begin w i t h , have the same language
or, in many cases, the same religion. The two g r o u p s form a u n i t y
a n d a single polity only as a r e s u l t of w a r s , invasions, victories, a n d
defeats, or in other w o r d s , acts of violence. The only l i n k b e t w e e n
them is the link established by the violence of w a r . A n d finally, w e
can say t h a t two races exist w h e n there are t w o groups which, a l
t h o u g h they coexist, have not become m i x e d because of the differ
ences, d i s s y m m e t r i e s , a n d b a r r i e r s c r e a t e d by privileges, customs a n d
rights, the d i s t r i b u t i o n of wealth, or the w a y in which power is e x
ercised.
T h i r d comment: W e can, therefore, recognize that historical d i s
course h a s t w o great morphologies, t w o m a i n centers, a n d t w o p o l i t
ical functions. On the one h a n d , the Roman history of sovereignty;
on the other, the b i b l i c a l history of servitude a n d exiles. I do not
think that the difference b e t w e e n these t w o histories is precisely the
same as the difference b e t w e e n an official discourse and, let us say, a
rustic* discourse, or a discourse that is so conditioned by political
imperatives t h a t it is incapable of p r o d u c i n g a k n o w l e d g e . This h i s
tory, w h i c h set itself the task of d e c i p h e r i n g p o w e r ' s secrets and d e
mystifying it, d i d in fact p r o d u c e at least as much k n o w l e d g e as the
history that t r i e d to reconstruct the g r e a t u n i n t e r r u p t e d j u r i s p r u d e n c e
of power. I t h i n k t h a t w e m i g h t even go so far as to say t h a t it
removed a lot of obstacles, and that the fertile moments in the con
stitution of historical knowledge in Europe can, roughly, be situated
at the moment when the history of sovereignty suddenly intruded
upon the history of the race war. In the early seventeenth century in
England, for instance, the discourse that told of invasions and of the
great injustices done to the Saxons by the Normans intruded upon
all the historical work that the monarchist jurists were undertaking
in order to recount the uninterrupted history of the power of the
kings of England. It was the intersection between these two historical
practices that led to the explosion of a whole field of knowledge.
Similarly, when at the end of the seventeenth century and the begin
ning of the eighteenth, the French nobility began to write its gene
alogy not in the form of a continuity but in the form of the privileges
it once enjoyed, which it then lost and which it wanted to win back,
all the historical research that was being done on that axis intruded
upon the historiography of the French monarchy instituted by Louis
XIV, and there was once more a considerable expansion of historical
knowledge. For similar reasons, there was another fertile moment at
the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the history of the
people, of its servitude and its enslavement, the history of the Gauls
and the Franks, of the peasants and the Third Estate, intruded upon
the juridical history of regimes. So the clash between the history of
sovereignty and the history of the race war leads to a perpetual
interaction, and to the production of fields of knowledge and of
knowledge-contents.
b l o c k i n g the call for revolution that derived from the old discourse
of struggles, interpretations, d e m a n d s , and promises.
I w o u l d like, finally, to m a k e one more point. The racism that came
into b e i n g as a transformation of and an alternative to revolutionary
discourse, or the old discourse of race struggle, u n d e r w e n t t w o further
transformations in the t w e n t i e t h century. A t the end of the nineteenth
century, w e see the a p p e a r a n c e of w h a t might be called a State racism,
of a biological a n d centralized racism. A n d it w a s this theme that w a s ,
if not profoundly modified, at least transformed and u t i l i z e d in strat
egies specific to the t w e n t i e t h century. On the one hand, w e have the
N a z i transformation, w h i c h t a k e s u p the theme, established at the
end of the nineteenth c e n t u r y , of a State racism that is responsible
for the biological protection of the race. This theme is, however, r e
w o r k e d a n d converted, in a sort of regressive mode, in such a w a y
that it is i m p l a n t e d in and functions w i t h i n the v e r y prophetic d i s
course from w h i c h the theme of race struggle once emerged. N a z i s m
w a s t h u s able to reuse a w h o l e popular, almost medieval, mythology
that a l l o w e d State racism to function w i t h i n an ideologico-mythical
landscape s i m i l a r to that of the p o p u l a r s t r u g g l e s w h i c h , at a given
moment, could support a n d m a k e it possible to formulate the theme
of race struggle. In the Nazi period, State racism w o u l d be accom
panied by a w h o l e set of elements and connotations such as, for e x
a m p l e , the struggle of a G e r m a n i c race w h i c h had, t e m p o r a r i l y , been
enslaved b y the European p o w e r s , the Slavs, the Treaty of Versailles,
a n d so o n — w h i c h G e r m a n y h a d a l w a y s regarded a s its provisional
victors. It w a s also accompanied by the theme of the r e t u r n of the
hero, or heroes ( t h e r e a w a k e n i n g of Frederick, and of all the nation's
other g u i d e s and Fiihrers; the theme of the revival of an ancestral w a r ;
that of the a d v e n t of a new Reich, of the empire of the last d a y s w h i c h
w i l l e n s u r e the m i l l e n a n a n victory of the r a c e , but w h i c h also means
that the inevitable apocalypse and the inevitable last d a y s are nigh.
W e have then a Nazi reinscription or reinsertion of State racism in
the legend of w a r r i n g races.
1-For Roman writers before Livy, the word "annals" referred to the ancient histories they
consulted. Annals are a primitive form of history in which events are related year by
year. The Annates Maximi drawn up by the Great Pontiif were published in eighty books
at the beginning of the second century B.C.
2. Foucault is obviously referring to the work of Georges Dumezil, and particularly to
Xtitra-V'aruna: Essai sur deux representations indo-euwpe'ennes de la souverainete (Paris: Galli-
mard, 1 9 4 0 ) (English translation by Derek Coleman: Mirta-Varuna: An Essay on Two
htdo-Eutvpean Repnsentations of Sovereignity [New York: Zone Books, 1 9 8 8 | ); Mythe et
Epopee (Pans: Gallimard), vol. 1: L'Ueo/ogie des trois jonctions dans les epopees des peuples indo-
eutvpeens, 1 9 6 8 ; vol. 2 : Types e'piques indo-eumpe'ens: un heros, un sorrier, un rot, 1 9 7 1 ; vol. 3:
Histoires romaines, 1 9 7 3 .
3. Titus Livius, Ab Urbe condita tibri (books 1 - 9 , 2 1 - 4 5 , and half of the fifth decade have
survived).
4. "Quid est enim aliud omnis histona quam romana laus" ("History was nothing but the
praise of Rome"). Petrarch, Invectiva contra eum qui aledixit Italia (1373). It should be
pointed out that Petrarch's words are cited by Erwin Panofeky in his Renaissance and
Renascences in Western Art (London: Paladin, 1 9 7 0 ) , p. 1 0 (first edition, Stockholm:
Almqvist & Wiksell, 1 9 6 0 ; French translation: La Renaissance et ses avant-coureurs dans Vart
d'Occident [Pans: Flammanon, 1 9 7 6 ] , p. 2 6 ) .
5. From Mignet and the authors Foucault mentions in subsequent lectures to Michelet.
6 . The actual reference should in fact be to the letter on 5 March 1 8 5 2 , in which Marx
writes to J . Weydemeyer: "Finally, in vour place I should in general remark to the
democratic gentlemen that they would do better first to acquaint themselves with bour
geois literature before they presume to yap at the opponents of it. For instance, these
gentlemen should study the historical works of Thierry, Guizot, John Wade, and others
in order to enlighten themselves as to the past 'history of classes.' " In Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels, Selected Correspondence, 2 d ed. (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1 9 6 5 ) ,
p . 6 8 (German original: Karl Marx-Friedrich Engels Gesamtausgabe, Dritte abteilung, Bri-
efwechsel [Berlin: Diez, 1 9 8 7 ] , bd. 5, p. 75; French translation: K.. Marx and F. Engels,
Correspondance [Paris: Editions sociales, 1 9 5 9 ] , vol. 3, p. 7 9 ) . Cf. Marx's letter of 27 July
1 8 5 4 to Engels, where Thierry is defined as "the father of the 'class struggle,'" Selected
Correspondence, p. 8 7 (Gesuamtausgabe, bd. 7, 1 9 8 9 , p. 130; Correspond ante, vol. 4, 1975,
pp. 1 4 8 - 5 2 ) . In the manuscript and obviously quoting from memory, M. Foucault writes:
"In 1 8 8 2 , Marx again said to Engels: 'The history of the revolutionary project and of
revolutionary practice is indissociable from this counterhistory of races, and the role it
played in political struggles in the West.' "
7. See in particular A. Thiers, Histoire de la Revolution francaisc, 1 0 vols. ( Pans, 1 8 2 3 - 1 8 2 7 ) ;
Histoire du Consulat et de I'Empire, 2 0 vols. (Pans, 1 8 4 5 - 1 8 6 2 ) .
five
4 FEBRUARY 1 9 7 6
OVER T H E L A S T W E E K or t w o , a c e r t a i n n u m b e r of q u e s t i o n s a n d
objections, some w r i t t e n a n d some oral, have been a d d r e s s e d to m e .
I w o u l d be q u i t e h a p p y to d i s c u s s these w i t h y o u , b u t it is difficult
in t h i s space a n d this c l i m a t e . In any case, y o u can come a n d see m e
in my office after the l e c t u r e if y o u have q u e s t i o n s to a s k me. B u t
there is one question I w o u l d l i k e to t r y to a n s w e r , first because I
have been asked it several t i m e s a n d second because I thought I h a d
a l r e a d y a n s w e r e d it in advance, b u t I have to conclude that m y e x
planations w e r e not sufficiently clear. I have been asked: " W h a t does
it mean to say that racism t a k e s off in the sixteenth or seventeenth
century, a n d to relate racism solely to t h e p r o b l e m s of the State a n d
sovereignty, w h e n it is w e l l k n o w n that, after a l l , r e l i g i o u s r a c i s m
( a n d r e l i g i o u s a n t i - S e m i t i s m in p a r t i c u l a r ) h a d been in existence
since the M i d d l e A g e s ? " I w o u l d therefore l i k e to go over something
I obviously d i d not e x p l a i n a d e q u a t e l y or clearly.
r e l i g i o u s - t y p e a n t i S e m i t i s m w a s r e u t i h z e d by S t a t e racism only in
the n i n e t e e n t h century, or at the p o i n t w h e n the State had to look
like, function, and present itself as the g u a r a n t o r of the integrity and
p u r i t y of the race, and had to defend it against the race or races that
w e r e infiltrating it, i n t r o d u c i n g harmful elements into its body, and
w h i c h therefore h a d to b e d r i v e n out for both political and biological
reasons. It is at this point that a n t i - S e m i t i s m develops, p i c k i n g u p ,
using, and t a k i n g from the old form of a n t i - S e m i t i s m all the energy—
and a w h o l e m y t h o l o g y — w h i c h h a d u n t i l t h e n been devoted solely
to the political analysis of the internal w a r , or the social w a r . A t this
point the J e w s came to be seen as—and w e r e described as—a race
that w a s present w i t h i n all races, a n d w h o s e biologically d a n g e r o u s
character necessitated a certain n u m b e r of mechanisms of rejection
a n d exclusion on the p a r t of the S t a t e . It is therefore, I think, t h e
r e u t i l i z a t i o n w i t h i n State racism of an a n t i - S e m i t i s m w h i c h h a d d e
veloped for other reasons t h a t g e n e r a t e d t h e t w e n t i e t h - c e n t u r y phe
nomena of s u p e r i m p o s i n g the old mechanisms of a n t i - S e m i t i s m on
this critical and political analysis of the s t r u g g l e between races w i t h i n
a s i n g l e society. That is w h y I d i d not r a i s e either the p r o b l e m of
religious r a c i s m or the p r o b l e m of a n t i - S e m i t i s m in the M i d d l e A g e s .
I w i l l , on the other hand, try to t a l k about them w h e n I come to t h e
n i n e t e e n t h century. A s I h a v e a l r e a d y said, I am r e a d y to a n s w e r more
specific questions.
Today I w o u l d l i k e to t r y to look at how w a r began to emerge as
an a n a l y z e r of p o w e r relations at the end of the sixteenth a n d the
b e g i n n i n g of the seventeenth century. There is, of course, one n a m e
t h a t w e i m m e d i a t e l y encounter: it is t h a t of Hobbes, w h o does, at
first glance, appear to b e the m a n w h o s a i d t h a t w a r is b o t h the basis
of p o w e r relations and the p r i n c i p l e that e x p l a i n s them. A c c o r d i n g
to H o b b e s , it is not just a w a r that w e find b e h i n d order, behind
peace, and beneath the l a w . It is not a w a r that presides over the
b i r t h of the great a u t o m a t o n w h i c h constitutes the State, the sover
eign, or Leviathan. It is the most general of all w a r s , and it goes on
at all times and in every dimension: "the w a r of every man against
1
every man." H o b b e s does not s i m p l y claim that this w a r of every
90 "SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
There are w i n n e r s and losers, and the losers are at the mercy of
the w i n n e r s , at their disposal. Let us n o w look at w h a t happens: the
v a n q u i s h e d are at the disposal of the victors. In other w o r d s , the
victors can kill t h e m . If they kill t h e m , the problem obviously goes
away: the sovereignty of the S t a t e d i s a p p e a r s s i m p l y because the i n
d i v i d u a l s w h o m a k e u p that S t a t e are dead. But w h a t h a p p e n s if the
victors spare the lives of the v a n q u i s h e d ? If they spare their lives, or
if the defeated are granted the t e m p o r a r y privilege of life, one of t w o
things may happen. Either they will rebel against the victors, or in
other w o r d s begin a n e w w a r and t r y to overthrow the relation of
forces, w h i c h takes u s b a c k to the real w a r that t h e i r defeat h a d , at
least for a t i m e , interrupted; either t h e y risk their lives, or do not
begin a new w a r a n d agree to w o r k for a n d obey the others, to s u r
r e n d e r their land to the victors, to pay t h e m taxes. Here we obviously
have a relationship of d o m i n a t i o n based e n t i r e l y u p o n w a r and the
prolongation, d u r i n g peacetime, of the effects of w a r . D o m i n a t i o n , you
say, and not sovereignty. But Hobbes does not say that: he says w e
are still in a relationship of sovereignty. W h y ? Because once the d e
feated have s h o w n a preference for life a n d o b e d i e n c e , t h e y m a k e t h e i r
victors their representatives a n d restore a sovereign to r e p l a c e the one
w h o w a s k i l l e d in the w a r . It is therefore not the defeat t h a t l e a d s to
the b r u t a l a n d illegal establishment of a society based upon d o m i
nation, slavery, a n d servitude; it is w h a t h a p p e n s d u r i n g the defeat,
or even after the battle, even after the defeat, and in a w a y , i n d e p e n
d e n t l y of it. It is fear, the renunciation of fear, and the renunciation
of the risk of death. It is this that introduces us into the o r d e r of
sovereignty and into a j u r i d i c a l regime: that of absolute power. The
will to prefer life to death: that is w h a t founds sovereignty, and it is
as juridical and l e g i t i m a t e as the sovereignty that w a s established
through the mode of institution a n d m u t u a l agreement.
Hobbes for giving the State too much p o w e r , they are secretly grateful
to him for having w a r d e d off a certain insidious and barbarous enemy.
The enemy—or rather the enemy discourse Hobbes is addressing—
is the discourse that could be heard in the civil struggles that w e r e
t e a r i n g the State a p a r t in England at this t i m e . It w a s a discourse t h a t
spoke w i t h t w o voices. One w a s s a y i n g : " W e are the conquerors a n d
you are the v a n q u i s h e d . W e may w e l l be foreigners, b u t you are ser
v a n t s . " To w h i c h the other voice r e p l i e d : " W e m a y well h a v e been
conquered, b u t w e w i l l not r e m a i n c o n q u e r e d . This is our l a n d , a n d
you will leave it." It is this discourse of struggle and permanent civil
w a r t h a t Hobbes w a r d s off by m a k i n g all w a r s and conquests d e p e n d
u p o n a contract, a n d by thus r e s c u i n g the theory of the State. A n d
that is of course w h y the philosophy of right s u b s e q u e n t l y r e w a r d e d
Hobbes w i t h the senatorial title of "the father of political philosophy."
W h e n the S t a t e capitol w a s in danger, a goose w o k e u p the s l e e p i n g
philosophers. It w a s Hobbes.
H o b b e s devotes w h o l e sections of Leviathan to a t t a c k i n g a discourse
( o r rather a p r a c t i c e ) w h i c h seems to me to have appeared—if not
for the first time, at least w i t h its essential dimensions and its political
virulence—in England. This is p r e s u m a b l y the r e s u l t of a combination
of t w o phenomena. First, of course, the precocity of the bourgeoisie's
political struggle against the absolute monarchy on the one hand and
the aristocracy on the other. A n d then there is another phenomenon:
the sharp awareness—even among the b r o a d p o p u l a r masses—that the
Conquest had produced a long-standing division, a n d that it w a s a
historical fact.
The presence of W i l l i a m ' s N o r m a n Conquest, which began at H a s
tings in 1 0 6 6 , had manifested itself and continued to do so in m a n y
different w a y s , in both i n s t i t u t i o n s and the historical e x p e r i e n c e of
political subjects in England. It manifested itself quite e x p l i c i t l y in
the r i t u a l s of p o w e r a s , until H e n r y VII, or in other words, until the
e a r l y sixteenth century, royal acts specifically s t a t e d that the king of
England exercised his sovereignty by r i g h t of conquest. They de
scribed h i m as an heir to to the N o r m a n s ' r i g h t of conquest. That
"SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
100
1. "During the Lime men live without a common Power 1 0 keep them all i n awe, thev are
in thai condition which is called W a r r e ; and such a w a r r e , as is ot everv man, against
everv man." Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. Richard l u c k ( C a m b r i d g e : Cambridge Uni
versity Press, 1 9 9 1 ) . p. 8 8 . O n the bellum omnium contra omnes, see also Hobbes's Elemen-
torum philosophiae secto tertia de cive ( P a r i s , 164,2) {French translation: Lr a'toyen, ou les
fondemenb de la politique [Paris: Flammarion, 1 9 8 2 ] ) .
2. Hobbes, Leviathan, p. 8 9 .
3. Ibid., pp. 8 9 - 9 0 .
4. Ibid., p. 9 0 .
5. Ibid., pp. 8 9 - 9 0 .
6. Ibid., p. 88.
7. Throughout the following discussion, Foucault refers t o chapters 1 7 - 2 0 oi part 2 of
Leviathan ( "Of Common w e a l t h " ) .
8. Ibid., p. 1 2 0 .
9- Ibid., chapter 2 0 .
1 0 . Ibid.; d . De Ore, II, i x .
11. On Marx's reading of Scott, see Eleanor M a r x Aveling, "tCarl M a r x : lose Blutter," i n
Osterrekhixhe Arbeiter-Kal under fur das Jahr lSQ5, pp. 51-54 (English translation: "Stray
Notes o n Karl M a r x , " in Reminiscences of Marx and Engels [Moscow: Foreign Languages
Publishing House, n.d. ]); F. Mehring, Karl Marx: Geschichte settles Lebens (Leipzig: Leip-
zigcr Buchbdruckerei Actiengesellschaft, 1 9 1 8 ) , vol. 15 (French translation: Karl Marx,
Histoire de .<u vie [Pans: Editions sociales, 1 9 8 3 J; English translation: Karl Marx: The Story
of His Life, tr. Edward Fitzgerald [London: Ailen and Unwin, 1 9 3 6 ] ) ; i. Berlin, Karl
Marx ( London: Butt r w o r t h , 1 9 3 9 ) , chap. 1 1 .
12. The action ot Ivanhoe ( 1819) is set in the England ot Richard t h e Lion-Hearted; the
France ot Louis X I p r o v i d e s the backdrop t o r Qucntin Durwurd { 1823). Ivanhoe is k n o w n
t o have influenced A. Thierrv and his theorv ot conquerors and conquered.
13. The reference is t o the evele of legendarv traditions and stones centered on the mvthical
figure ot the British sovereign A r t h u r , who led the Saxon resistance during the first half
ot the Kith centurv. These traditions and legends were first collected in the twelfth
centurv bv Geoffrey of M o n m o u t h i n his De origine et gestis regum Britanniae libri XII
7
( Heidelberg, I 6 8 ) and then bv Robert W a c e in Le Roman de Brut ( 1115 ) and the Roman
de Ron ( 1 1 6 0 - 1 1 7 4 ) . This is t h e so called Breton material that was r e w o r k e d bv Chretien
d e Troves i n Lancelot and Perceval in the second halt of the twelfth centurv.
l-'t. Gcotfrev ot Monmouth's account ot the historv of t h e British nation begins w i t h the
first conqueror, t h e Trojan Brutus. It traces British history from the Roman conquests
to the British resistance against the Saxon invaders and the decline of the Saxon kingdom.
This w i s one uf t h e most popular works o f rhe M i d d l e Ages, and introduced the A r
thurian legend into European literature.
15. In Lne manuscript, Foucault adds "Chronicle ot Gloucester."
1 6 . "Monarchac p r o p n e sunt judices, quibus juris dicendi potfstam p r o p n e commisit Deus.
Nam in chrono Dei sedent, unde oninis ea facultas denvata est." J a m e s I, Oratio habiia
in camera -Jullata J I O I 6 ] , in Opera edita a Jucabo Montacuta (Francoforti ad Moenum el
Lipsiae. 1C>89). p. 25 *>• "Nihil est in t e r n s quod non s i t intra Monarchiae tastigium. Nec
enim solum Dei Vicari sunt Reges, deique throno insident: sed ipso Deo Deorum nom
1 iiea honoiantur." Oratori habita in comitis regni ad umenes ordines inpalatio albaulae j 1 6 9 0 j ,
in Opera edila. p. 2H5. On t h e "Divine Right ot tCings," d . Basilikon down, sive De institution?
prinapis, in Opera edita, pp. 6 3 - 8 S .
17. "Li quamquam in a i m regionibus mgentes regn sanguinis tactae sint mutationes, sceptn
junr ad novos Dominos jure belli translate; eadem tamen i l l i c cernitur in terram et
subditos potest at is regiae vis, quae apud nos, qui cominos numquam mutavimus. Quum
J February 19 7 6
invented and established by the Normans, which were oi all nations the most quarrel
some and most fallacious in contriving of controversies and suits." Cf. ibid., chaps. 2 and
\ See also Administration Civil and spiritual in Two Treatises (London, 1648), I, xxxvn. It
should be noted that Warr's phrase is cited in part in Christopher Hill, Puritanism and
Revolution (London: Seeker & Warburg, 1 9 5 8 ) , p. 78.
28. See in particular John Lilburne, The Just Man's Justification (London, 1 6 4 6 ) , pp. 11-13; A
Discourse betwixt John Lilburne, close prisoner in the tower of London, and Mr. Hugfi Peters
(London, 1649); England's Birth-right Justified against all arbitrary usurpation (London, 1645);
Regail tyrannic Discovered (London, 1647); England's New Chains Discovered (London, 1648).
1
Most of the Levellers' tracts are collected in W. Haller and G. Davies, ed., The levellers
Tracts, 1647-1653 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1944).
29. Regail tyrranie, p. 8 6 . The attribution of this tract to Lilburne is uncertain; R. Overton
probably collaborated on it.
30. The best known of the Digger texts, to which Foucault may be referring here, are the
anonymous manifesto Light Shining in Buckinghamshire ( 1 6 4 8 ) and More Light Shining in
Buckinghamshire ( 1 6 4 9 ) . Cf. G Winstanley et ah, To his Excellency the Lord Fairfax and the
Counsell of Warre the brotherly request of thos that are called diggers sheweth (London, 1 6 5 0 ) ;
G. Winstanley, Fire in the Bush (London, 1 6 5 0 ) ; The Law of Freedom in a Platform, or True
Magistracy Restored (London, 1 6 5 2 ) . See also G. H. Sabine, ed., The Works of Gerrard
Winstanley, with an Appendix of Documents Relating to the Digger Movement (Ithaca, N.Y.:
Cornell University Press, 1941).
SIX
11 FEBRUARY 1 9 7 6
1
Stories about origins. - The Trojan myth. - France's •
1
heredity. - "Franco-Gallia." - Invasion, history, and public
right. - National dualism. - The knowledge of the \
prince. - Boulainvilliers's "Etatde la France." - The clerk, the <
intendant, and the knowledge of the aristocracy. ~ A new subject
of history. - History and constitution. "
invented and established by the Normans, which were ot all nations the most quarrel
some and most fallacious in contriving of controversies and suits." Cf. ibid., chaps. 2 and
}. See also Administration Civil and spiritual in Two Treatises (London, 1648), I, xxxvu. It
should be noted that Warr's phrase is cited in part m Christopher Hill, Puritanism and
Revolution ( London: Seeker & Warburg, 1 9 5 8 ) , p. 78.
28. See in particular John Lilburne, The Just Man's justification (London, 1 6 4 6 ) , pp. 11-13; A
Discourse betwixt John Lilburne, close prisoner in the tower of London, and Mr. Hugh Peters
(London, l6-i9); England's Birth-right Justified against all arbitrary usurpation (London, 1645);
Regall tyrannic Discovered ( London, 1647); England's New Chains Discovered ( London, 1648).
Most of the Levellers' tracts are collected in W. Haller and G. Da vies, ed., The Levellers'
Tracts, 1647-1653 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1944)-
29. Regall tynanie, p. 86. The attribution of this tract to Lilburne is uncertain; R. Overton
probably collaborated on it.
30. The best known of the Digger texts, to which Foucault may be referring here, are the
anonymous manifesto Light Shining in Buckinghamshire ( 1 6 4 8 ) and More Light Shining in
Buckinghamshire ( 1 6 4 9 ) . Cf. G. Winstanley et al., To his Excellency the Lord Tairfax and the
CounselloJ Warn the brotherly request ofthos that are called diggers sheweth (London, 1 6 5 0 ) ;
G. Winstanley, Fire in the Bush (London, 1 6 5 0 ) ; The Law of freedom in a Platform, or True
Magistracy Restored (London, 1652). See also G. H. Sabine, ed.. The Works of Gerrard
Winstanley, with an Appendix of Documents Relating to the Digger Movement (Ithaca, N.Y.:
Cornell University Press, 1941).
SIX
11 FEBRUARY 1 9 7 6
and laid siege to Rome; it also elides the Roman colony of Gaul,
Caesar, and i m p e r i a l Rome. A n d as a result, it elides an entire Roman
l i t e r a t u r e , even though it w a s perfectly well known at this time.
I don't think w e can understand w h y this Trojan story elides Rome
unless w e stop regarding this tale of origins as a tentative history that
is still tangled up w i t h old beliefs. It seems to me that, on the con
trary, it is a discourse w i t h a specific function. Its function is not so
much to record the past or to s p e a k of origins as to speak of right,
to speak of power's right. Basically, the story is a lesson in public
right. It c i r c u l a t e d , I think, as a lesson in public right. A n d it is
because it is a lesson in p u b l i c right that there is no mention of Rome.
But Rome is also present in a displaced form, l i k e a double outline
or a t w i n : Rome is there, but it is there in the w a y that an image is
there in a mirror. To say that the Franks are, like the Romans, refugees
from Troy, and t h a t France and Rome are in some sense two branches
that g r o w from the same trunk, is in effect to say two or three things
that are, I believe, important in both political and j u r i d i c a l terms.
To say that the Franks are, like the R o m a n s , fugitives from Troy
means first of all that from the day that the Roman State ( w h i c h was,
after all, no more than a brother, or at best an older b r o t h e r ) van
ished, the other brothers—the younger brothers—became its heirs by
v i r t u e of the right of peoples. Thanks to a sort of natural right that
was recognized by all, France w a s the heir to the empire. A n d that
means t w o things. It means first of all that the rights and p o w e r s the
k i n g of France enjoys over his subjects are inherited from those the
R o m a n emperor enjoyed over his subjects; the sovereignty of the king
of France is of the same tvpe as the sovereignty of the Roman emperor.
The k i n g ' s right is a R o m a n right. A n d the legend of Troy is a way
of using pictures to illustrate, a w a y of illustrating, the principle that
was formulated i n the M i d d l e A g e s , mainly by Boutillier w h e n he
said that the k i n g of France w a s an emperor in his k i n g d o m . ' This is
an important thesis, you know, because it is basically the historico-
mvthical counterpart to the way that roval power developed through
out the M i d d l e A g e s by modeling itself on the Roman i m p e n u m and
7 7 February 1976 117
H o t m a n does not sav that the Franks defeated the Gauls; he savs that
thev defeated the Romans."
H o t m a n ' s thesis is certainly verv important because it introduces,
at much the same time that we see it appearing in England, the basic
theme of the invasion ( w h i c h is both the cross the jurists have to
bear and the k i n g ' s n i g h t m a r e ) that results in the death of some States
a n d the birth of others. All the j u r i d i c o political debates w i l l revolve
around this theme. Henceforth, and given this basic discontinuity, it
is obvious that it is no longer possible to recite a lesson in p u b l i c
right w h o s e function is to guarantee the u n i n t e r r u p t e d nature of the
genealogy of k i n g s and their power. From n o w on, the g r e a t problem
in p u b l i c r i g h t will be the problem of w h a t Etienne Pasquier, who
7
w a s one of H o t m a n ' s followers, calls "the other succession," or in
other w o r d s : W h a t happens w h e n one State succeeds a n o t h e r ? W h a t
happens—and w h a t becomes of public right and the power of k i n g s —
w h e n States do not succeed one another as [a result of] a sort of
continuity that nothing i n t e r r u p t s , but because they are born, go
t h r o u g h a phase of might, t h e n fall into decadence, and finally v a n i s h
c o m p l e t e l y ? Hotman certainly raises the p r o b l e m of the t w o foreign
nations t h a t e x i s t w i t h i n the State*—but I do not t h i n k that the
p r o b l e m he raises is a n y different, or verv different, from t h a t of the
cyclical nature and precarious existence of S t a t e s . A n d b e s i d e s , in
general t e r m s , no a u t h o r w r i t i n g at the time of the Wars of R e l i g i o n
accepted the idea t h a t there w a s a duality—of race, o r i g i n s , or
n a t i o n s — w i t h i n the monarchy. It was impossible because, on the one
hand, the s u p p o r t e r s of a single r e l i g i o n — w h o obviously b e l i e v e d in
the principle of "one faith, one law, one k i n g " — c o u l d not at the same
time demand religious u n i t y and accept that there w a s a d u a l i t y
w i t h i n the nation; on the other hand, the thesis of those who w e r e
a r g u i n g the case for religious choice or freedom of conscience w a s
a c c e p t a b l e only if thev said, "Neither freedom of consciousness, nor
the possibility of religious choice, nor even the existence of t w o re
*The manuscr.pt has -fifth and s.xth centuries," wh>ch corresponds to the actual date of the
conquest.
"SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
law in t e r m s of the w i l l of the king and vice versa. The form of this
history w i l l be profoundly a n t i j u n d i c a l , and, going beyond w h a t has
been w r i t t e n down, it w i l l d e c i p h e r and recall w h a t lies beneath
e v e r y t h i n g that has fallen into abeyance, and denounce the blatant
hostility concealed by this k n o w l e d g e . That is the iirst great adversary
of the historical k n o w l e d g e the nobility w a n t s to create so a s to reoc-
c u p y the k n o w l e d g e of the king.
The other great adversary is the k n o w l e d g e not of the judge or the
clerk, but of the intendant: not le greffe ( t h e c l e r k of the court's office)
but le bureau ( t h e office of the i n t e n d a n t ) . This too is hateful k n o w l
edge. A n d for symmetrical reasons, as it w a s the k n o w l e d g e of the
i n t e n d a n t s that a l l o w e d them to eat into the w e a l t h and p o w e r of the
nobles. This too is a k n o w l e d g e that can dazzle the k i n g and hood
w i n k him, as it is thanks to t h i s k n o w l e d g e that the king can impose
his might, c o m m a n d obedience, and ensure that taxes are collected.
This is an a d m i n i s t r a t i v e k n o w l e d g e , and above all a q u a n t i t a t i v e eco
nomic k n o w l e d g e : k n o w l e d g e of actual or potential wealth, k n o w l e d g e
of tolerable levels of t a x a t i o n and of useful taxes. The nobility wants
to use another form of u n d e r s t a n d i n g against the k n o w l e d g e of the
i n t e n d a n t s a n d le bureau: history. This time, however, it is a history
of wealth and not an economic history. This is a history of the d i s
placement of w e a l t h , of exactions, theft, sleight of hand, embezzle
ment, impoverishment, a n d ruin. This, then, is a history that digs
beneath the problem of the production of w e a l t h so as to demonstrate
that it w a s ruination, debt, and abusive accumulations that created a
certain state of w e a l t h that is, u l t i m a t e l y , no more than a combination
of crooked deals done by a k i n g w h o was a i d e d and abetted by the
bourgeoisie. The analysis of w e a l t h w i l l , then, be challenged by a
history of how the nobles w e r e ruined by endless w a r s , a history of
how the church t r i c k e d them into giving it gifts of land and money,
a history of how the bourgeoisie got the nobility into debt, and a
history of how royal t a x - g a t h e r e r s ate into the income of the nobles.
The two great discourses that the history of the nobility is trying
to challenge—that of the courts and that of le bureau—do not share
7 7 February 1976 133
1. There are at least fifty accounts of the Trojan origins of the French, from the Pseudo-
Fr£degaire's Historia Francoium (727) to Ronsard's Franciade (1572). It is unclear whether
Foucault is referring to this tradition as a whole, or to a specific text. The text in question
may be the one referred to bv A. Thierry in his Recti du temps merovingiens, precede de
considerations sur I'histoire de France (Paris, 1 8 4 0 ) , or in other words Les Grandes Chroniques
de Saint-Denis (which were written in the second half of the twelfth centurv, published
by Paulin Paris in 1836, and reprinted by J . Viard in 1 9 2 0 ) . Many of these stones can
be consulted in Dom. M. Bouquet, Recueil des historiens de Gaule et de la France (Pans,
1739-1752), vols. 2 and 3.
2. "Know that he is an emperor in his kingdom, and that he can do all and as much as
imperial right permits" (J. Boutilher, Somme rurale, oule Grand Coutumier general de pratiques
civiles [fourteenth century] [Bruges, 1479]). The 1611 edition of this text is cited by A.
Thierry, Considerations sur I'histoire de France.
3. Thierry, p. 41 (1868 ed.).
4. F. Hotman, Franco-Gallia (Geneva, 1573) (French translation: La Gaule franchise [Cologne,
1574], reprinted as La Gaule francaise [Pans: Fayard, 1 9 8 1 ] ) .
5. Cf. Beati Rhenani Rerum Germanicorum lihri tres (Basel, 1531). The edition published in Ulm
in 1 6 9 3 should also be consulted; the commentary and notes added by the members of
the Imperial Historical College provide a genealogy and eulogy of the "Europa corona"
of the Hapsburgs (BeatiRhenani lihri tres Institutionem Rerum Historici Imperialis scopum illus-
tratarum [Ulm, 1 6 9 3 ] , and especially pp. 5 6 9 - 6 0 0 . See also the commentaries appended
to the Strasbourg edition: Argentaton, 1 6 1 0 ) .
6. Cf. Hotman, Franco-Gallia, chapter 4, "De ortu Francorum, qui Gallia occupata. eius
nomen in Francia, vel Francogalliam mutarunt" ( p p . 40-52 of the 1576 ed.).
7. Etienne Pasquier, Recherxhes de la France, 3 vols. (Pans 1560-1567). Pasquier studied
under Hotman.
8. Cf. Hotman, Franco-Gallia, p. 54: "Semper reges Franci h a b u e r u n t . . . non tyrannos, aut
camefices: sed liberatis suae custodes, praefectos, tutores sibi constituerunt."
9. Ibid., p. 62.
1 0 . Julius Caesar, Commentariide hello gallico; see especially books 6 , 7, and 8.
11. Hotman, Franco-Gallia, pp. 55-62.
12. Cf. ibid., p. 65i, where Hotman describes "the continuity of the powers of the council"
through the various dynasties.
13.Jean du Tillet, Les Manoires et rechenhes (Rouen, 1578); Recueil des Roys de France (Pans,
1 5 8 0 ) ; Remonstrance ou Advertissement a la noblesse tant du parti du Roy que des rebelles (Pans,
1585)- Jean de Serres, Memoires de la troisieme guerre civile, et des dernieis troubles de la France
(Pans, 1 5 7 0 ) ; lnventaire general de I'histoire de la France (Pans, 1597).
14. P- Audigier, De torigt'ne des Francois etde leur empire (Pans, 1676).
15.J--E. Tarault, Annales de France, avec les alliances, genealogies, conquetes,fondations e'cclesiasttques
et civiles en tune et tautre empire et dans les rvyaumes etrangtrs, depuis Pharamond jusqu'au roi
Louis trti^eme (Pans, 1635).
16. P. Audigier, De I'origt'ne des Francois, p. 3.
17. Caesar, De Bella gallico, book 1, p. 1.
18. It was in fact Bishop Ragvaldson who, speaking of the question of the "fabrication of
the human race" at the Council of Basel in 1434, described Scandinavia as humanity's
original cradle. He based his claim on the fourth-century chronicle of Jordams: "Hac
lgitur Scandza insula quasi officina gentium aut certe velut vagina nationum... Gotthi
quondam memorantur egressi" (De origine actibusque Getarum in Monumanta Germaniae
Historic a, Auctvrum anttquissimorum, vol. 5, part 1 (Berolim, 1882), pp. 53-258 (quotation
from p. 6 0 ) . A far-reaching debate on this question began after the rediscovery of Tac-
itus's De origine et situ Gomaniae, which was published in 1472.
''SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
18 FEBRUARY 1 9 7 6
18 FEBRUARY 1 9 7 6
*"that was the military armature of Gaul" does not figure m the manuscript, which reads,
"a country ruined by absolutism."
18 February 1976
t h i n k , t h i s g e n e r a l i z a t i o n of w a r that is characteristic of B o u l a i n v i l -
l i e r s ' s thought.
I w o u l d l i k e to end b y s a y i n g this. W h a t does this threefold g e n
eralization of w a r l e a d to? It l e a d s to this. It is t h a n k s to this that
B o u l a i n v i l l i e r s reaches a point that the h i s t o r i a n s of r i g h t [ . . . ] * For
those h i s t o r i a n s w h o identified h i s t o r y w i t h public r i g h t , w i t h the
State, w a r w a s therefore essentially a disruption of r i g h t , an enigma,
a sort of dark mass or r a w event that had to be accepted as such, and
not, c e r t a i n l y not, a p r i n c i p l e of i n t e l l i g i b i l i t y . There w a s no question
of that; on the contrary, it w a s a d i s r u p t i v e p r i n c i p l e . Here, in con
trast, w a r t u r n s the very disruption of r i g h t into a g r i d of i n t e l l i g i
bility, a n d m a k e s it possible to d e t e r m i n e the force r e l a t i o n s h i p that
a l w a y s u n d e r p i n s a certain r e l a t i o n s h i p of right. Boulainvilliers can
thus integrate events such as w a r s , invasions, a n d c h a n g e — w h i c h w e r e
once seen s i m p l y a s n a k e d a c t s of v i o l e n c e — i n t o a w h o l e l a y e r of
contents and prophecies that covered society in i t s entirety ( b e c a u s e ,
as w e have seen, they affect r i g h t , the economy, t a x a t i o n , religion,
beliefs, education, the s t u d y of l a n g u a g e s , a n d j u r i d i c a l i n s t i t u t i o n s ) .
A history t h a t takes a s its s t a r t i n g p o i n t the fact of w a r itself a n d
m a k e s its a n a l y s i s in terms of w a r can r e l a t e all these t h i n g s — w a r ,
religion, politics, manners, a n d characters—and can therefore act as a
p r i n c i p l e that allows us to u n d e r s t a n d history. A c c o r d i n g to B o u l a i n -
villiers, it is w a r that m a k e s society i n t e l l i g i b l e , a n d I t h i n k that the
same can b e said of all historical d i s c o u r s e . W h e n I speak of a g r i d
of i n t e l l i g i b i l i t y , I am obviously not s a y i n g t h a t w h a t B o u l a i n v i l l i e r s
said is true. One could p r o b a b l y even d e m o n s t r a t e that e v e r y t h i n g he
said w a s false. I am s i m p l y s a y i n g that it could be d e m o n s t r a t e d . W h a t
w a s said in the seventeenth century a b o u t the Trojan o r i g i n s of the
*The recording breaks down at this point. The manuscript explicitly states: "In one sense,
it is analogous to the juridical problem: How does sovereignty come into being? But this
time, the historical narrative is not being used to illustrate the continuity of a sovereignty
that is legitimate because it remains within the element of right from beginning to end. It
is being used to explain how the specific institution, or the modern historical figure, of the
absolute state was born of intersecting relations of force that became a sort of generalized
war among nations."
164 '•SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
25 FEBRUARY 1 9 7 6
25 FEBRUARY 1 9 7 6
*It is difficult to establish the meaning on the basis of the tape recording. The first eighteen
pages of the manuscript were m fact moved to the end in the lecture itself.
2 5 February 1976 175
1
25 February 1976 181
3 MARCH 1976
L A S T T I M E , I S H O W E D y o u how a h i s t o n c o - p o h t i c a l d i s c o u r s e , or a
h i s t o n c o - p o h t i c a l field, took shape a n d w a s constituted around t h e
n o b i l i a r y reaction of t h e early e i g h t e e n t h century. I w o u l d n o w l i k e
to move to a different point in time, or in other w o r d s , to a r o u n d t h e
French Revolution a n d to a moment w h e r e w e can, I t h i n k , g r a s p t w o
processes. W e can see, on t h e one hand, h o w this discourse, w h i c h
was o r i g i n a l l y b o u n d u p w i t h t h e n o b i l i a r y reaction, b e c a m e g e n e r
alized not so much, or not only, i n the sense that is became, so to
s p e a k , the regular or canonical form of historical discourse, b u t to t h e
extent t h a t it became a tactical i n s t r u m e n t t h a t could b e u s e d not
only by the nobility, b u t ultimately in v a r i o u s different strategies. In
t h e course of t h e eighteenth century, a n d subject to a certain n u m b e r
of modifications at t h e level of its basic propositions, historical d i s
course e v e n t u a l l y became a sort of d i s c u r s i v e w e a p o n that could be
used b y all t h e adversaries present w i t h i n t h e political field. In short,
I w o u l d l i k e to show y o u h o w t h i s historical i n s t r u m e n t must not b e
seen as the ideology o r an ideological product of t h e nobility or i t s
190 "SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
M
acceptable.' The soul of the b a r b a r i a n is great, noble, and proud, but
it is a l w a y s associated w i t h treachery and c r u e l t y ( a l l this is in M a -
b l y ) . S p e a k i n g of barbarians, Bonneville said: " [ T ] h e s e adventurers
l i v e d only for w a r . . . the s w o r d w a s t h e i r right and they exercised it
5
without remorse." A n d M a r a t , another great a d m i r e r of barbarians,
described them as "poor, uncouth, w i t h o u t trade, without arts, b u t
6
free." The b a r b a r i a n as natural m a n ? Y e s and no. No, in the sense
t h a t he is a l w a y s b o u n d u p w i t h a h i s t o r y ( a n d a p r e e x i s t i n g h i s t o r y ) .
T h e b a r b a r i a n a p p e a r s against a b a c k d r o p of history. A n d if he is
related to nature, said B u a t - N a n c a y ( w h o w a s getting at his closest
enemy, n a m e l y M o n t e s q u i e u ) , it is because—well, w h a t is the nature
of t h i n g s ? "It is the relationship b e t w e e n the sun and the m u d it
7
dries, between the thistle and the d o n k e y that feeds on it."
W i t h i n this h i s t o n c o - p o h t i c a l field w h e r e k n o w l e d g e of w e a p o n s
is constantly b e i n g used as a political instrument, the g r e a t tactics
that are developed in the eighteenth c e n t u r y can, I think, be c h a r
acterized b y the w a y t h e y use the four elements present in B o u l a i n -
v i l h e r s ' s analysis: constitution, revolution, b a r b a r i s m , a n d domination.
The p r o b l e m is basically this: H o w can w e establish the best possible
fit b e t w e e n unfettered b a r b a r i s m on the one h a n d , and the e q u i h b
r i u m of the constitution w e are t r y i n g to rediscover on the o t h e r ?
H o w c a n w e arrive at the right balance of forces, a n d h o w c a n w e
m a k e use of the violence, freedom, a n d so on t h a t the b a r b a r i a n b r i n g s
w i t h h i m ? In other w o r d s , w h i c h of the b a r b a r i a n ' s characteristics do
w e have to retain, a n d w h i c h do we have to reject, if we a r e to g e t a
fair constitution to w o r k ? W h a t is there in b a r b a r i s m that w e can
make use of? Basically, the problem is that of filtering of the b a r b a r i a n
and b a r b a r i s m : how can b a r b a r i a n domination be so filtered as to
bring about the constituent r e v o l u t i o n ? It is this problem, and the
different solutions to t h e problem of the need to filter b a r b a r i s m so
as to b r i n g about the constituent revolution, that will define—both
in the field of historical discourse a n d in this historico-political iield—
the tactical positions of different g r o u p s a n d the different interests of
the n o b i l i t y , m o n a r c h i c power, or different t e n d e n c i e s w i t h i n the
bourgeoisie. It w i l l define w h e r e the center of the battle lies.
198 "SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
their historical theses or political objectives may be. Now the fact that
this epistemic web is so t i g h t l y woven certainly does not mean that
everyone is t h i n k i n g along the same lines. It is in fact a precondition
for not t h i n k i n g along the same lines or for t h i n k i n g along different
lines; and it is that w h i c h m a k e s the differences politically pertinent.
If different subjects are to be able to s p e a k , to occupy different tactical
positions, and if they are to be able to find themselves in mutually
adversarial positions, there has to be a tight field, there h a s to be a
very t i g h t l y woven n e t w o r k to r e g u l a r i z e historical k n o w l e d g e . A s the
field of k n o w l e d g e becomes more regular, it becomes increasingly pos
sible for the subjects w h o s p e a k w i t h i n it to be d i v i d e d along strict
lines of confrontation, a n d it becomes increasingly possible to make
the contending discourses function as different tactical units w i t h i n
overall strategies ( w h i c h are not s i m p l y a matter of discourse and
t r u t h , but also of power, status, a n d economic i n t e r e s t s ) . The tactical
reversibility of the discourse is, in other w o r d s , directly proportional
to the homogeneity of the field in w h i c h it is formed. It is the reg
u l a r i t y of the epistemological field, the homogeneity of the discourse's
mode of formation, that a l l o w s it to be used in struggles that are
extradiscursive. That, then, is the methodological reason w h y I em
phasized that the different discursive tactics are distributed across a
historico-political field that is coherent, regular, and very tightly
21
woven.
I also stress it for a second reason—a factual reason—pertaining to
w h a t happened at the time of the Revolution. W h a t I mean is this:
Leaving aside the last form of discourse that I have just been telling
you about ( B r e q u i g n y or C h a p s a l ) , you can see that, basically, those
w h o had the least interest in investing their political projects in his
tory were of course the people of the bourgeoisie or the T h i r d Estate,
because going b a c k to a constitution or d e m a n d i n g a return to some
thing r e s e m b l i n g an e q u i l i b r i u m of forces i m p l i e s in some w a y that
you k n o w w h e r e you stand in that e q u i l i b r i u m of forces. N o w it w a s
quite obvious that the T h i r d Estate or the bourgeoisie could scarcely,
at least u n t i l the m i d d l e of the M i d d l e A g e s , identify itself as a h i s
torical subject w i t h i n the play of relations of force. So long as history
5 March (976 209
22
references that had been made to the capitulars, to the Edict of Piste,
and to the practices of the Merovingians and the Carolingians. It was
a sort of polemical reply to the multiplicity of historical references
you find in the nobility's register of grievances. And then you have a
second reactivation of history, which is probably more important and
more interesting. I refer to the reactivation, during the Revolution
itself, of a certain number of moments or historical forms that function
as, if you like, the splendors of history. Their reappearance in the
Revolution's vocabulary, institutions, signs, manifestations, festivals
made it possible to visualize it as a cycle and a return.
So the juridical Rousseauism that had long been its main theme
led, in some sense, to the reactivation of two great historical forms
during the Revolution. On the one hand, you have the reactivation
of Rome, or rather of the Roman city, or in other words, of an archaic
Rome that was both republican and virtuous, rather than the Gallo-
Roman city with its freedoms and its prosperity. Hence the Roman
festival, or the political rituahzation of a historical form which, in
constitutional or basic terms, derived from those freedoms. The other
figure to be reactivated is that of Charlemagne; w e have seen the role
Mably gave him and how he became the point where Frankish and
Gallo-Roman freedoms merged; Charlemagne was the man who
summoned the people to the Champ de Mars. Charlemagne as
sovereign-warrior, but also as the protector of trade and the towns.
Charlemagne as both Germanic king and Roman emperor. Right from
the beginning of the Revolution, a whole Carolingian dream unfolds,
and it goes on unfolding throughout the Revolution, but much less
has been said about it than about the Roman festival. The festival
held on the Champ de Mars on 14 J u l y 1 7 8 9 is a Carolingian festival;
it takes place on the Champ de Mars itself, and it permits the recon-
stitution or reactivation of a certain relationship between the people
gathered there and their sovereign. And the modality of that rela
tionship is Carohngian. That kind of implicit historical vocabulary is
at least present in the festival of 14 July 1 7 8 9 . The best proof of that
is that in June 1 7 8 9 , or a few weeks before the festival, someone in
the Jacobin Club demanded that in the course of the festival, Louis
3 March 1976 211
X V I should forfeit the title of king, that the title of king should be
replaced by that of emperor, that w h e n he passed by, the cry should
not be "Long live the king!" but "Louis the Emperor!" because the
man who is emperor "imperat sed not regit": he commands but does not
govern, because he is an emperor and not a king. According to this
project, Louis X V I should return from the Champ de Mars with the
23
imperial crown on his head. A n d it is of course at the point where
the Carolingian dream ( w h i c h is not very well k n o w n ) and the Ro
man dream meet that we find the Napoleonic empire.
The other form of historical reactivation that we find in the Rev
olution is the execration of feudalism, or of what Antraigues, a noble
who had rallied to the bourgeoisie, called "the most terrible scourge
24
that heaven, in its anger, could have visited upon a free nation."
Now, this execration of feudalism takes several forms. First, a straight
forward inversion of Boulainvilhers's thesis, or the invasion thesis.
And so you find texts which say—this one is by Abbe Proyart: "Lis
ten, you Frankish gentlemen. We outnumber you by a thousand to
one; we have been your vassals for long enough, now you become our
25
vassals. It pleases us to come into the heritage of our fathers." That
is what Abbe Proyart wanted the Third Estate to say to the nobility.
And in his famous text on the Third Estate, to which I will come
back next time, Sieyes said: "Why not send them all back to the forests
of Franconia, all these families that still make the insane claim that
they are descended from a race of conquerors, and that they have
26
inherited the right of conquest?" And in either 1 7 9 5 or 1 7 9 6 — 1
can't remember—Boulay de la M e u r t h e said, after the mass emigration
of the nobility: "The emigres represent the last vestiges of a conquest
27
from which the French nation has gradually liberated itself."
What you see taking shape here will be just as important in the
early nineteenth century: the French Revolution—and the political
and social struggles that went on during it—are being reinterpreted
in terms of the history of races. And it is no doubt this execration of
feudalism that supplies the context for the ambiguous celebration of
the gothic that we see appearing in the famous medieval novels of the
revolutionary period, in those gothic novels that are at once tales of
212 "SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
terror, fear, and mystery, and political novels. They are a l w a y s about
the abuse of p o w e r and exactions; they are fables about unjust sov
ereigns, pitiless and bloodthirsty seigneurs, arrogant priests, and so
on. The gothic novel is both science fiction a n d politics fiction: politics
fiction in the sense that these novels essentially focus on the abuse of
power, and science fiction in the sense that their function is to re
activate, at the level of the imaginary, a w h o l e k n o w l e d g e about feu
dalism, a w h o l e k n o w l e d g e about the gothic—a k n o w l e d g e that has,
basically, a g o l d e n age. It w a s not l i t e r a t u r e and it w a s not the imag
ination that introduced the themes of the gothic and feudalism at the
end of the e i g h t e e n t h century, and they w e r e neither new nor reno
vated in a n y absolute sense. They were in fact inscribed in the order
of the i m a g i n a r y to the precise extent that the gothic and feudalism
h a d been a n issue in w h a t was now a h u n d r e d - y e a r - l o n g struggle at
the level of k n o w l e d g e a n d forms of power. Long before the first
gothic novel, almost a century before it, there had been a r g u m e n t s
over w h a t the feudal lords, their fiefs, their powers, and their forms
of domination meant in both historical a n d political terms. The w h o l e
of the e i g h t e e n t h century w a s obsessed w i t h the p r o b l e m of feudalism
at the level of right, history, and politics. And it w a s only at the time
of the Revolution—or a hundred years after all that w o r k had been
done at the level of k n o w l e d g e and the level of politics—that there
was finally a t a k i n g up again of these themes, at the level of the
imaginary, in these science-fiction and politics-fiction novels. It was
in this domain, therefore, that you had the gothic novel. But all this
has to be situated in the context of the history of k n o w l e d g e and of
the political tactics that it m a k e s possible. A n d so, next time, I will
talk to y o u about history as a r e w o r k i n g of the Revolution.
3 March 1976 21}
10 MARCH 1976
1 0 . J . - N . Dubos, Histoire critique de I'e'tablissement de la monarchic franqaise dans les Gaules (Paris,
1734).
11. J . - N . Moreau, Ltcpns de morale, de politique et dedwit public, puise'es dans t histoire dela monarchic
(Versailles, 1773); Expose hi storique des administrations popul aires aux plus anciennes epoques de
notre monanhie (Pans, 1 7 8 9 ) ; Defense de notre constitution monajxhique franchise, pre'cede'e de
I'Histoire de toutes nos assemblies nationales (Pans, 1 7 8 9 ) .
12. An old expression meaning "to treat someone as the Turks treat the Moors/* Dubos
writes: "I ask the reader to pay particular attention to the natural humor of the inhab
itants of Gaul, who, in the absence of any proof to the contrary, have never been regarded
in any century as being stupid or cowardly: as we shall see, it is impossible for a handful
of Franks to treat the one million Romans living in Gaul de tun d Maure." Histoire critique,
vol. 4, book 6, pp. 212-13.
13. For Dubos's critique of Boulainvilliers, see ibid., chaps. 8 and 9 .
14. It seems that only the last sentence is a direct quotation. Having spoken of the usurpation
of royal offices and of how the commissions granted to the dukes and counts were
converted into hereditary dignities, Dubos writes: "It was at this time that the Gauls
became a conquered land." Ibid., book 4, p. 2 9 0 (1742 ed.).
15- G. B. de Mably, Observations sur I'histoire de France.
16. N. de Bonneville, Histoire de I'Europe moderne depuh I'irruption des peuples du Nord.
17. Mably, Observations, p. 6.
18. L. G. O. F. de Brequigny, Diplomata, chartae, epistolae et alia monumenta ad res franciscas spec-
tantia (Pans, 1679-1783); Ordonnances des wis de France de la tnineme race (Paris, vol. 11,
1 7 6 9 , vol. 12, 1776).
19-J.-F. Chapsal, Discours sur la fe'odalite et I'allodialite, suivi de Dissertations sur lefrance-alleu des
coutumes d'Auvergne, du Bourbonnais, du Nivernois, de Champagne (Pans, 1791).
20. R.-J. Turgot, Memoire sur les municipalites (Pans, 1776).
21. This passage makes a significant contribution to the debates and controversies provoked
by the concept of the episteme, which Foucault elaborates in Les Mots et les choses and
then reworks in LArche'ologie du savoir, part 4, chap. 6.
22. A council held in Pistes ( or Pistres) in 864 under the influence of Archbishop Hincmar.
Its resolutions are known as the Edict of Pistes. The organization of the monetary system
was discussed, the destruction of castles built by seigneurs was ordered, and several
towns were given the right to mint coins. The assembly put Pipin II of Aquitaine on
trial and declared that he had forfeited his position.
23. The reference is to a motion put to the Jacobin Club on 17 June 1789. Cf. F. A. Aulard,
La Societe des jacobins (Pans, 1 8 8 9 - 1 8 9 7 ) , vol. 1, p. 153-
24. E. L. H. L., comte d'Antraigues, Me'moires sur la constitution des Etats prvvinciaux (Vivarois,
1 7 8 8 ) , p. 61.
25. L. B. Proyart, Vie du Dauphin pere de Louis XV (Pans and Lyon, 1872), vol. 1, pp. 357-58,
cited in A. Devyer, Le Sang epure, p. 370.
26. E.-J. Sieyes, Qu'est-ce que le Tiers-Etat, chap. 2, pp. 10-11. In the original, the sentence
begins: "Why shouldn't it [the Third Estate] . . . "
27. A. J. Boulay de la Meurthe, Rapport presente le 25 Vendemiaire an VI au Conseil des Cinq-
Cents sur les mesures d'ostracisme, d'exil, d'expulsion les plus convenables aux principes de justice et
de liberie, et les plus prvp/es d consolider la republique, cited in A. Devyer, Le Sang epure, p. 415-
ten
10 MARCH 1976
T h e manuscript has "the king represents the entire nation and" before "everv particular."
The reference for the quotation is given as "P. E. Leraontev, Ckurrcs, Paris, vol. V, 1 8 2 9
p. 15."
218 "SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
the formal precondition for the existence of a nation. This is, however,
only the first stage of the definition. If a nation is to survive, if its
l a w is to be applied and if its legislature is to be recognized ( n o t only
abroad, or by other nations, but a l s o w i t h i n the nation itself), if its
survival a n d prosperity a r e to be not only a formal precondition for
its juridical existence, but also a historical precondition for its e x i s
tence in history, then there must be s o m e t h i n g else, other precondi
tions. Sieyes now t u r n s his attention to these other preconditions.
They are in a sense the substantive preconditions for the existence of
the nation, and Sieyes d i v i d e s t h e m into t w o groups. T h e first are
w h a t he c a l l s " w o r k s , " or first, a g r i c u l t u r e ; second, handicrafts a n d
i n d u s t r y ; t h i r d , t r a d e ; and, fourth, the l i b e r a l arts. But in a d d i t i o n to
these " w o r k s , " there must also be w h a t he c a l l s "functions": the a r m y ,
5
justice, the church, and the a d m i n i s t r a t i o n . " W o r k s " and "functions";
w e w o u l d no doubt use the more accurate terms "functions" and
" a p p a r a t u s e s " to describe these t w o sets of historical p r e r e q u i s i t e s for
nationhood. The important point is, however, that it is at this level of
functions and apparatuses that the nation's historical conditions of e x
istence are defined. By defining t h e m at this level, a n d by i n t r o d u c i n g
historical conditions as jundico-formal preconditions for nationhood,
Sieyes i s , I t h i n k ( a n d t h i s is the first t h i n g that has to be pointed o u t ) ,
reversing the direction of all previous analyses, no matter w h e t h e r they
adopted the monarchist thesis or took a Rousseauist line.
Indeed, so long as the j u r i d i c a l definition of the nation p r e v a i l e d ,
w h a t w e r e the e l e m e n t s — a g r i c u l t u r e , commerce, i n d u s t r y , et cetera—
that Sieyes isolates as the substantive preconditions for the existence
of t h e n a t i o n ? They w e r e not a precondition for the nation's existence;
on the c o n t r a r y , they w e r e effects of the nation's existence. It w a s
precisely w h e n men, or i n d i v i d u a l s s c a t t e r e d across the surface of the
l a n d , on the e d g e s of the forests or on the p l a i n s , decided to develop
their a g r i c u l t u r e , to t r a d e and to be able to have economic r e l a t i o n s
w i t h one another, t h a t they gave themselves a l a w , a S t a t e , or a gov
ernment. In other w o r d s , all these functions w e r e in fact effects of the
juridical constitution of the nation, or at least its consequences. It w a s
220 "SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
Once this has been done, the monarchy itself usurps power, b u t it
can m a k e it function, or can exercise it, only by t u r n i n g to this n e w
class. It therefore entrusts its justice and a d m i n i s t r a t i o n to this n e w
class, w h i c h finds itself in control of all the functions of the State. A s
a result, the final moment of the process can only be the u l t i m a t e
232 "SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
rebellion: having fallen into the hands of this n e w class, or into the
hands of the people, the State is no longer under the control of royal
power. All that r e m a i n s is a n a k e d encounter b e t w e e n a king w h o
has in reality only the p o w e r he h a s been given by popular rebellions,
a n d a popular class w h i c h has all the i n s t r u m e n t s of the State in its
h a n d s . T h i s i s the final episode, the final rebellion. Against w h o m ?
Against the m a n w h o has forgotten that he w a s the last aristocrat
w h o still h a d any power: the king.
In M o n t l o s i e r ' s analysis, the French Revolution therefore looks like
the final episode in the transferential process that established royal
a b s o l u t i s m . " The Revolution completes the constitution of monarchic
power. But surely the Revolution overthrew the k i n g ? Not at all. The
Revolution finished w h a t the k i n g s h a d begun, and l i t e r a l l y speaks
its t r u t h . The Revolution has to be read as the culmination of the
monarchy; a tragic c u l m i n a t i o n perhaps, but a culmination that is
politically t r u e . The king may w e l l have been decapitated d u r i n g that
scene on 21 J a n u a r y 1793; they decapitated the king, but they crowned
the monarchy. The Convention is the t r u t h of the monarchy stripped
bare, a n d the sovereignty that the k i n g snatched away from the no
b i l i t y i s now, in a w a y that is absolutely necessary, in the h a n d s of a
people w h i c h , according to Montlosier, proves to be the kings' legit
imate heir. M o n t l o s i e r , aristocrat, emigre, and savage opponent of the
least attempt at l i b e r a l i z a t i o n under the Restoration, can write this:
"The sovereign people: w e should not condemn it with too much
bitterness. It is s i m p l y c o n s u m m a t i n g the w o r k of its sovereign p r e d e
cessors." The people is therefore the heir, and the legitimate heir, of
the kings; it is s i m p l y completing the work of the sovereigns who
preceded it. It followed, point by point, the route traced for it by
kings, by parlementaires, by men of the l a w , and by scholars. A s you
can see, then, M o n t l o s i e r ' s historical analysis is framed by the thesis
that it all began with a state of w a r and a relation of domination. The
political d e m a n d s put forward d u r i n g the Restoration period certainly
i n c l u d e d the claim that the rights of the nobility must be restored,
that the p r o p e r t y that had been nationalized should be returned to
it, a n d that the relations of domination it had once exercised over the
TO March J976 233
thirteen hundred years, and that it was a struggle between the victors
6
and the vanquished.' According to Augustin Thierry, the whole
problem of historical analysis is to show how a struggle between vic
tors and vanquished that goes on throughout history can lead to a
present that no longer takes the form of a war and a dissymmetrical
domination which either perpetuates them or takes them in a different
direction; the problem is to show how such a war could lead to the
genesis of a universality in which struggles, or at least war, inevitably
cease.
Why is it that only one of these two parties can be the agent of
universality? That, for Augustin Thierry, is the problem of history.
And his analysis therefore consists in tracing the origins of a process
that was duahstic when it began, but both monist and umversahst
when it ended. According to Augustin Thierry, the important thing
about this confrontation is that what happened obviously has its start
ing point in something like an invasion. But although the struggle or
confrontation went on throughout the Middle Ages and is still going
on, that is not because the victors and the vanquished clashed within
institutions; it is because two different societies were constituted.
They were not of the same economico-juridical type, and they fought
over the administration and over who controlled the State. Even be
fore medieval society was established, a rural society did exist: it was
organized after the conquest and in a form that very quickly devel
oped into feudalism. And then there emerged a rival urban society
based on both a Roman model and a Gaulish model. In one sense,
the confrontation was basically the result of the invasion and the
conquest, but it was essentially, or in substantive terms, a struggle
between two societies. The conflict between the two did at times take
the form of armed conflict, but for the most part it took that of a
political and economic confrontation. It may well have been a war,
but it was a war between right and freedoms on one side, and debt
and wealth on the other.
The confrontation between these two types of society over the con
stitution of a State will become the basic motor of history. Until the
ninth or tenth century, the towns were on the losing side in this
7 0 March 7976 235
confrontation, in this struggle for the State and the universality of the
State. And then, from the tenth and eleventh centuries onward, the
towns underwent a renaissance. Those in the south adopted the Italian
model, and the towns of the northern regions adopted the Nordic
model. In both cases, a new form of juridical and economic organi
zation came into being. And the reason urban society eventually tri
umphed is not at all that it won something like a military victory,
but quite simply that it had wealth on its side, but also an admin
istrative ability, a morale, a certain way of life, what Augustin Thierry
calls innovatory instincts, and its activity. All these things gave it such
strength that, one day, its institutions ceased to be local and became
the country's institutions of political right and civil right. Umversal-
lzation therefore began not w i t h a relationship of domination that
gradually swung completely in its favor, but with the fact that all the
constituent elements of the State were born of it, were in its hands
or had come into its hands. Its force was the force of the State and
not the force of war, and the bourgeoisie did not make w a r l i k e use
of it except when it was really obliged to do so.
There are two great episodes, two main phases in this history of
the bourgeoisie and the Third Estate. First, when the Third Estate
sensed that it was in control of all the forces of the State, what it
proposed to the nobility and the clergy was, well, a sort of social pact.
Hence the emergence of both the theory and the institutions of the
three orders. This was, however, an artificial unity that did not really
correspond to either the realities of the relationship of force or the
will of the enemy. The Third Estate had in fact the whole State in its
hands, and its enemy, or in other words, the nobility, refused to
recognize that the Third Estate had any right at all. It was at this
point, in the eighteenth century, that a new process began, and it w a s
to be a more violent process of confrontation. A n d the Revolution
itself w a s to be the final episode in a violent war. It naturally reac
tivated the old conflicts, but it was, in some sense, nothing more than
the military instrument of a conflict and struggle that were not in
themselves warlike. They were essentially civil, and the State w a s both
their object and the space in which they took place. The disappear-
236 "SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
ance of the three-order system, and the violent shocks of the Revo
lution, s i m p l y provided a b a c k d r o p for a single event: this is the
moment w h e n , having become a nation and then having become the
nation by absorbing all the functions of the State, the T h i r d Estate
w i l l effectively take sole control of both nation a n d State. The fact
that it alone is the nation and that the State is under its sole control
allows it to assume the functions of universality which will automat
ically do a w a y w i t h both the old d u a l i t y and all the relations of
domination that have hitherto been at w o r k . The bourgeoisie or Third
Estate thus becomes the people, and thus becomes the nation. It has
the m i g h t of the universal. And the present moment—the moment
when A u g u s t i n Thierry is w r i t i n g — i s precisely the moment when
dualities, nations, and even classes cease to exist. "An immense evo
lution," said Thierrv, " w h i c h causes all violent or i l l e g i t i m a t e in
e q u a l i t i e s — m a s t e r a n d slave, victor a n d vanquished, lord a n d serf—
to vanish one by one from the land in w h i c h w e live. In their place,
it finally reveals one people, one l a w that applies to all a n d one free
7
and sovereign nation.'"
So you see, with analyses l i k e this we obviously have, first, the
elimination of w a r ' s function as an analyzer of historico-political pro
cesses, or at least its strict c u r t a i l m e n t . W a r is now no more than an
e p h e m e r a l a n d instrumental aspect of confrontations w h i c h are not of
a w a r l i k e nature. Second, the essential element is no longer the re
lationship of domination that exists b e t w e e n one nation and another
or one g r o u p and another; the fundamental relationship is the State.
A n d you can also see, in analyses like this, the outline of something
that can, in my view, be i m m e d i a t e l y likened, i m m e d i a t e l y transposed,
to a philosophical discourse of a dialectical t y p e .
The p o s s i b i l i t y of a philosophy of history, or in other words the
appearance, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, of a philos
ophy that finds in history, and in the plenitude of the present, the
moment w h e n the universal speaks its truth, vou see—I am not saying
that the ground is being p r e p a r e d for this philosophy; I am saying
that it is a l r e a d y at w o r k w i t h i n historical discourse. What took place
w a s a self dialecticalization of historical discourse, and it occurred
7 0 March 7976 237
17 MARCH 1 9 7 6
*In the manuscript, the sentence continues: "at the time of the Revolution."
238 "SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
17 MARCH 1976
1
From the power of sovereignty to power over life. - Make live
and let die. - From man as body to man as species: the birth of
biopower. - Biopower's fields of application. - Population. - Of
death, and of the death of Franco in particular. - Articulations
of discipline and regulation: workers' housing, sexuality, and the
norm. - Biopower and racism. - Racism: functions and
*• domains. ~ Nazism. - Socialism.
*In the manuscript, the sentence continues: "at the time of the Revolution."
2^0 "SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
that the biological came under State control, that there was at least
a certain tendency that leads to what might be termed State control
of the biological. And I think that in order to understand what was
going on, it helps if we refer to what used to be the classical theory
of sovereignty, which ultimately provided us with the backdrop to—a
picture of—all these analyses of war, races, and so on. You know that
in the classical theory of sovereignty, the right of life and death was
one of sovereignty's basic attributes. Now the right of life and death
is a strange right. Even at the theoretical level, it is a strange right.
What does having the right of life and death actually mean? In one
sense, to say that the sovereign has a right of life and death means
that he can, basically, either have people put to death or let them
live, or in any case that life and death are not natural or immediate
phenomena which are primal or radical, and which fall outside the
field of power. If we take the argument a little further, or to the point
where it becomes paradoxical, it means that in terms of his relation
ship with the sovereign, the subject is, by rights, neither dead nor
alive. From the point of view of life and death, the subject is neutral,
and it is thanks to the sovereign that the subject has the right to be
alive or, possibly, the right to be dead. In any case, the lives and
deaths of subjects become rights only as a result of the will of the
sovereign. That is, if you like, the theoretical paradox. And it is of
course a theoretical paradox that must have as its corollary a sort of
practical disequilibrium. What does the right of life and death actually
mean? Obviously not that the sovereign can grant life in the same
way that he can inflict death. The right of life and death is always
exercised in an unbalanced way: the balance is always tipped in favor
of death. Sovereign power's effect on life is exercised only when the
sovereign can kill. The very essence of the right of life and death is
actually the right to kill: it is at the moment when the sovereign can
kill that he exercises his right over life. It is essentially the right of
the sword. So there is no real symmetry in the right over life and
death. It is not the right to put people to death or to grant them life.
Nor is it the right to allow people to live or to leave them to die. It
17 March 1976 2V
is the right to take lit e or let live. And this obviously introduces a
startling dissymmetry.
And I think that one of the greatest transformations political right
underwent in the nineteenth century was precisely that, I wouldn't
say exactly that sovereignty's old right—to take lite or let live—was
replaced, but it came to be complemented by a new right which does
not erase the old right but which does penetrate it, permeate it. This
is the right, or rather precisely the opposite right. It is the power to
"make" live and "let" die. The right of sovereignty was the right to
take life or let live. And then this new right is established: the right
to make live and to let die.
This transformation obviously did not occur all at once. We can
trace it in the theory of right ( b u t here, I will be extraordinarily
rapid). The jurists of the seventeenth and especially the eighteenth
century were, you see, already asking this question about the right of
life and death. The jurists ask: When we enter into a contract, what
are individuals doing at the level of the social contract, when they
come together to constitute a sovereign, to delegate absolute power
over them to a sovereign? They do so because they are forced to by
some threat or by need. They therefore do so in order to protect their
lives. It is in order to live that they constitute a sovereign. To the
extent that this is the case, can life actually become one of the rights
of the sovereign? Isn't life the foundation ot the sovereign's right, and
can the sovereign actually demand that his subjects grant him the
right to exercise the power of lite and death over them, or in other
words, simply the power to kill them? Mustn't life remain outside
the contract to the extent that it was the tirst, initial, and foundational
reason for the contract itselt? All this is a debate within political
philosophy that we can leave on one side, but it clearly demonstrates
how the problem of life began to be problematized in the field of
political thought, of the analysis of political power. I would in fact
like to trace the transformation not at the level of political theory,
but rather at the level of the mechanisms, techniques, and technologies
of power. And this brings us back to something familiar: in the sev-
242 "SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
In more general terms still, w e can say that there is one element
that w i l l circulate b e t w e e n the d i s c i p l i n a r y and the regulatory, which
w i l l also be a p p l i e d to body and population alike, w h i c h will make
it possible to control both the d i s c i p l i n a r y order of the body and the
aleatory events that occur in the biological m u l t i p l i c i t y . The element
17 March 1976 25}
S t a t e s ? P e r h a p s not. But I do t h i n k t h a t — b u t t h i s w o u l d be a w h o l e
new a r g u m e n t — t h e socialist State, socialism, is as m a r k e d by racism
as the w o r k i n g s of the modern State, of the capitalist State. In addition
to the State racism that developed in the conditions I have been telling
you about, a social-racism also came into being, and it did not w a i t
for the formation of socialist States before m a k i n g its appearance.
Socialism w a s a racism from the outset, even in the nineteenth cen
6
tury. No matter w h e t h e r it is Fourier at the b e g i n n i n g of the c e n t u r y
or the anarchists at the end of it, you will a l w a y s find a racist com
ponent in socialism.
I find this very difficult to t a l k about. To speak in such terms is
to m a k e enormous claims. To prove the point would really t a k e a
w h o l e series of lectures ( a n d I w o u l d l i k e to do t h e m ) . But at least
let me just say this: In general terms, it seems to me—and here, I am
speculating somewhat—that to the extent that it does not, in the first
instance, raise the economic or j u r i d i c a l problems of t y p e s of property
o w n e r s h i p or modes of production—or to the extent that the problem
of the mechanics of power or the mechanisms of p o w e r is not posed
or a n a l y z e d — [ s o c i a l i s m therefore] i n e v i t a b l y reaffected or reinvested
the very p o w e r - m e c h a n i s m s constituted by the capitalist State or the
industrial State. One t h i n g at least is certain: Socialism h a s m a d e no
c r i t i q u e of the theme of b i o p o w e r , w h i c h developed at the end of the
eighteenth c e n t u r y a n d throughout the n i n e t e e n t h ; it has in fact t a k e n
it u p , developed, r e i m p l a n t e d , a n d modified it in c e r t a i n respects, but
it has certainly not r e e x a m i n e d its b a s i s or its m o d e s of w o r k i n g .
U l t i m a t e l y , the idea that the essential function of society or the State,
or w h a t e v e r it is t h a t must replace the State, is to t a k e control of life,
to manage it, to compensate for i t s aleatory nature, to explore and
reduce biological accidents a n d possibilities . . . it seems to me that
socialism takes this over wholesale. A n d the result is that w e i m m e
diately find ourselves in a socialist State w h i c h must exercise the right
to k i l l or the right to e l i m i n a t e , or the right to disqualify. A n d so,
quite n a t u r a l l y , w e find that racism—not a t r u l y ethnic racism, b u t
racism of the evolutionist k i n d , biological racism—is fully operational
262 "SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED"
). Foucault comes back to all these disciplines, especially in Cours au College de France 1977-
1978: Securite, territoire et population and 1978-1979: Naissance de la biopolitique, forthcoming.
4. Foucault refers here to the theory elaborated in mid-nineteenth-century France by certain
alienists and in particular by B.-A, Morel (Traite de degtnerescences physiques, intellectueties
et morales de Vespice humaine [Paris, 1857], Traite's des maladies mentales [Paris, 1 8 7 0 ] ) ; V.
Magnan (Lemons cliniques $ur les maladies mentales [Pans, 189)]); and M. Legrain and V.
Magnan (Les De'gtnere's, e'tat mental et syndromes eptsodiques [Pans, 1 8 9 5 ] ) - This theory of
degeneracy, which is based upon the principle that a so-called hereditary taint can be
transmitted, was the kernel of medical knowledge about madness and abnormality in
the second half of the nineteenth century. It was quickly adopted by forensic medicine,
and it had a considerable effect on eugenicist doctrines and practices, and was not
without its influence on a whole literature, a whole criminology, and a whole anthro
pology.
5- As early as 19 March, Hitler had drawn up plans to destroy Germany's logistic infra
structure and industrial plant. These dispositions were announced in the decrees of 3 0
March and 7 April. On these decrees, see A. Speer, Erinnerungen (Berlin: Proplyaen-
Verlag, 1 9 6 9 ) (French translation: Au Coeur du Tromeme Rekh [Paris: Fayard, 1971];
English translation by Richard and Clara Winton: Inside the Third Rekh: Memoirs [London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1 9 7 0 ] ) . Foucault had definitely read J. Fest's book Hitler
(Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, and Vienna: Verlag Ulstein, 1 9 7 3 ) (French translation:Hitler
[Pans: Gallimard, 1973]; English translation by Richard and Clara Winton, Hitler [Lon
don: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974])-
6. In this connection, see in particular Charles Fourier, Theorie des quatre mouvements et des
destinies gene'rales (Leipzig and Lyon, 1 8 0 8 ) ; Le Nouveau Monde industriel et societaire (Paris,
1 8 2 9 ) ; La Fausse Industrie moixelee, repugnante, mensongere, 2 vols. (Paris, 1 8 3 6 ) .
COURSE SUMMARY
First published in Annuaire du College de France, 76eme annee, Histoire des systemes de pensie, anne'e
1975-1976 ( 1 9 7 6 ) , pp. 3 6 1 - 6 6 ; reprinted in Dih et cents, vol. 3, pp. 124-30. An alternative
translation, by Robert Hurley, appears in Ethks: The Essential Works, vol. 1, pp. 5 9 - 6 6 .
266 Course Summary
This is the question that has been posed in this year's lectures.
How did people begin to perceive a war just beneath the surface of
peace? Who tried to find the principle that explained order, insti
tutions, and history in the noise and confusion of war and in the mud
of battles? Who was the first to think that war is the continuation of
politics by other means?
This year's course was devoted to the emergence of this form of anal
ysis: how has war ( a n d its different aspects: invasions, battles, con
quests, relations between victors and vanquished, pillage and
appropriation, uprisings) been used as an analyzer of history and,
more generally, social relations?
1. We must begin by ruling out certain false paternities. Especially
Hobbes. What Hobbes calls the war of every man against every man
is in no sense a real historical war, but a play of presentations that
allows every man to evaluate the threat that everv man represents to
him, to evaluate the willingness of others to fight, and to assess the
risk that he himself would run if he resorted to force. Sovereignty—
be it that of a "commonwealth by institution" or that of a "common
wealth by acquisition"—is established not by the fact of warlike dom
ination but, on the contrary, by a calculation that makes it possible
to avoid war. For Hobbes, it is a nonwar that founds the State and
gives it its form.
2. The history of wars as the wombs of States was no doubt out
lined in the sixteenth century, and at the end of the Wars of Religion
( b y Hotman, for example, in France). But it was mainlv in the sev-
Course Summary 271
sought in racial duality and the war between races. On this basis, and
through the intermediary of the works of Augustin and Amedee
Thierry, two types of historical interpretation developed in the nine
teenth century: one will be articulated with the class struggle, and
the other with a biological confrontation.
SITUATING THE LECTURES
sought in racial duality and the war between races. On this basis, and
through the intermediary of the works of Augustin and Amedee
Thierry, two types of historical interpretation developed in the nine
teenth century: one will be articulated with the class struggle, and
the other with a biological confrontation.
SITUATING THE LECTURES
One could say the same of "sexuality" ( b u t this time the dialogue
is with nineteenth-century medicine and with Freud in particular,
and the tone is sharper). Foucault never denied that sexuality was
"central" to medical discourses and practices from the early eighteenth
century onward. But he did dismiss the idea, which was prefigured
by Freud and then theorized by "Freudo-Marxism," that this sexu
ality was simply denied, repressed, or suppressed; on the contrary,
according to Foucault, it gave rise to a whole proliferation of emi
nently positive discourses that actually allowed power —biopower—
to control and normalize individuals, behavior, and the population.
"Sexuality" is therefore not a repository of secrets from which one
can, provided one knows how to detect and decode them, extract the
truth about individuals; it is, rather, a domain in which, ever since
the campaign against childhood onanism suddenly began in England
in the first half of the eighteenth century, power over life has been
exercised in the twin forms of the "anatomo-politics of the human
body" and the "biopolitics of population." Both powers—that of bod
ily disciplines and that of the government of the population—are thus
Situating the Lectures 279
Where there is power, there is always resistance, and the two things
are coextensive: "As soon as there is a power relation, there is a
possibility of resistance. We can never be ensnared by power: we can
always modify its grip in determinate conditions and according to a
precise strategy."" The field in which power is deployed is therefore
not that of a doleful and stable domination: "The struggle is every
where. . . . at every moment, we move from rebellion to domination,
from domination to rebellion, and it is all this perpetual agitation that
I would like to try to bring out."" The characteristic feature of power,
its aims and its maneuvers, is therefore not so much its boundless
might as a sort of congenital mefficacy: "Power is not omnipotent or
omniscient; on the contrary," Foucault remarked in 1 9 7 8 of the anal
yses made in The History of Sexuality. "The reason power relations have
produced ways of investigating and analyzing models of knowledge is
precisely that," he went on, "power is not omniscient, that power is
blind, that it finds itself in an impasse. The reason why we have seen
the development of so many power relations, so many systems of
control, and so many forms of surveillance is precisely that power has
always been impotent."" In The History of Sexuality Foucault asks: His
tory being the ruse of reason, is power the ruse of history, and does
it always emerge the w i n n e r ? Quite the contrary: "This would be to
misunderstand the strictly relational character of power relationships.
Their existence depends upon a multiplicity of points of resistance:
these play the role of adversary, target, support, or handles m power
relations. These points of resistance are present everywhere in the
1,s
power network."
intense and violent form that the struggles take at certain moments,
and only at certain moments, in history. It is, rather, a wav ol saying
that the massive tact ol domination and the binarv logic of war cannot
understand either all the episodic or sporadic struggles that take place
in the field ot power, or the multiplicity of local, unpredictable, and
heterogeneous resistances. Toward the end ot his lite, in 1982 in a
text which is in a sense his philosophical "testament" and in which
he tried, as he did so often—so much so that it seems lo be one ot
the "figures" ot his thought to rethink all these questions in the light
ot his latest work and to bring a new perspective to bear on them,
Foucault wrote that what he had been trying to do w a s not "to analyze
the phenomena ot power, nor to elaborate the foundation ot such an
analysis," but rather to produce "a history of the different modes by
3
which, in our culture, human beings are made subjects." " In his view,
the exercise ot power consisted primarily in "directing conduct" in
the sense that Christian pastoralism and "governmentahty" direct
conduct. He wrote: "Basically, power is less a confrontation between
two adversaries or the linking ot the one to the other than a question
of government."" And he concluded (though the text has to be read
in full) that "Every strategy ot confrontation dreams of becoming a
relationship ot power and everv relationship ot power leans toward
the idea that, it it follows its own line of development and comes up
against direct confrontation, it may become the winning strategy.""
On the Imperial Roman Theme and the Translation Imperii from the
Middle Ages to the Renaissance
F. A. Yates, Astraea: The Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth Century (London
and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1 9 7 5 ) (Astraea [Paris: Boivin,
1989]).
On Boulainvilliers
R. Simon, Henry de Boulainvilliers, historien, politique, philosophe, astrologue
(Paris: Boivin, 1942) and Un Revoke du grand siecle: Henry de Boulain
villiers (Garches: Ed. du Nouvel Humanisme, 1 9 4 8 ) .
1
30. "The Subject and Power,* in Dreyfus and Rabinow, eds., Michel Foucauh, p. 203; Dits et
ecrits, vol. 4, p. 237-
31. "The Subject and Power," p. 221; Dits et edits, vol. 4, p. 237.
31. Ibid., pp. 25-26; Dits et ecrits. vol. 4, p. 242.
33- "Le Jeu de Michel Foucault," Dits et ecrits, vol. 3, p. 32S; "The Confession of the Flesh,"
p. 225-
Dits et ecrits, vol. 1, pp. 842-86; Ltkks; The Essentia/ Works, vol. 1. pp. 5-10.
35. Les Anormaux: Cours au College de Trance, 1974-1975 (Paris: Gallimard and Le Seuil, 1999),
p. 2 9 9 .
36. "The Minimalist Self" (interview with Stephen Riggins), in Knuman, ed., Michel fou
cault, p. 7; French translation: "Une Interview de Michel Foucault par Stephen Riggins,"
Dits et ecrits, vol. 4, p. 528.
37. Cf. ''Polemics, Politics and Problematizations" in Paul Rabinow, ed., The Toucault Reader
(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986); pp. 381-90; French version: "Polemique, politique et
problematisations," Dits et ecrits, vol. 4, pp. 591-98.
M
38. E1 poder, una bestia magnifica," pp. 376-77-
39. "Kenryoku to chi," p. 404-
a
40. "Power and Sex," p. 12; Non au sexe roi," p- 2 6 6 .
INDEX
24) Cambodia, 2 8 5
35)6 Celts, 7 6 , 1 0 0 , 1 5 6 , 2 2 9
50 C h a m p de M a r s and M a y assemblies,
knowledge of, 1 6 9 - 7 0 80
Index 297
du Tillet, J e a n , 121 95
as memorv ol struggles, 8
Jouffroy d'Abbans, Achille, 2 2 9 ,
and networks of power, 33-34
238n.10
normalization of, 178-85
judicial system
organization and consolidation of, in
attacks on, 5
centered around royal power, 2 5 - 2 6 18th century, 1 7 9 - 8 5
limited, 1 2 0 - 2 2 223-24
230-32 Nazism
217-24 40
Index 305
ca. 1 6 0 0 o n w a r d , 4 9 - 6 2 Puritans, 5 9
33 defined by biology, 8 0 - 8 2
S t a t e - s p o n s o r e d , e.g., N a z i s m , 8 1 - 8 2 , R h e n a n u s , B e a u t u s , 118
89, 2 3 9 , 2 5 4 - 6 3 , 2 8 3 , 2 8 5 - 8 6 R i c h e l i e u , C a r d i n a l , 122, 123
traditional, 258 right
racist d i s c o u r s e , o r i g i n of, in race w a r a s s e r t i o n of, b y philosophical
discourse, 8 0 - 8 1 a d v e r s a r i e s , 52-54
reason, belief i n p r o g r e s s of, 182 of c o n q u e s t , 9 9 - 1 0 0
r eb ell ion h i s t o r y of, 125-26, 174-78
a n d d o m i n a t i o n , cycle of, 2 8 0 - 8 1 r u l e s of, d e l i n e a t e d b y power, 24-27
fomented b y the k i n g , 2 3 0 and w a r , r e l a t i o n s h i p of, 156-58
historical n e e d for, 110 r i g h t , d i s c o u r s e of, 215, 241, 245
reformism, 262 r i g h t s , revival of, historico-political
r e g u l a r i z a t i o n , p o w e r of, 247, 253 d i s c o u r s e a n d , 131-33
r e g u l a t i o n of p o p u l a t i o n s , 242-52 Robin Hood tales, 1 0 0
R e i c h , R e i m u t , 31 R o m a n a n n a l i s t s , 6 6 - 6 9 , 71-72
R e i c h , W i l h e l m , 5, 15 Roman Empire
r e power, 16 defeat of, b y G e r m a n s , 118-21
re s e x u a l i t y , 31 f r e e d o m s in, s u r v i v i n g into M i d d l e
r e l i g i o n , u n i t y v s . freedom of, 119-20 Ages, 204-6
religious racism (e.g., a n t i - S e m i t i s m ) , h e i r s of, 115-18, 123-24
88-89 o c c u p a t i o n of G a u l , 120-21, 144-47,
representative government, 93-94 2 0 0 , 229
repression R o m a n G a u l . See G a u l , R o m a n
c r i t i c i s m of notion of, 17-18, 4 0 , 2 7 8 Romanity, 2 0 6
m e c h a n i s m s of, at t h e l o w e s t level, R o m a n l a w , 153
r e s e a r c h on, 32-33 r e a c t i v a t i o n of, 34, 35
p o w e r a s , 17-18, 44 R o m a n R e p u b l i c , 145
of s e x u a l i t y , 31-33 Rome (ideal of)
r e s i s t a n c e , a n d p o w e r , r e l a t i o n of, 2 8 0 - 8 1 as B a b y l o n , 71, 74
R e s t o r a t i o n p e r i o d , 232 c o n t i n u i n g p r e s e n c e of, in M i d d l e
r e t u r n of defeated a n c e s t o r s , m y t h of, A g e s , 74-75
56-57, 82 g r a n d e u r and d e c a d e n c e of, 147
r e t u r n s of k n o w l e d g e , 6-12 r e a c t i v a t i o n of, i n F r e n c h R e v o l u t i o n ,
revolution 210
b a r b a r i a n s ' c o n t r i b u t i o n to, 1 9 7 - 2 0 6 R o u s s e a u , J e a n J a c q u e s , 35
constitution reestablished b y means Rousseauism, 2 0 9 - 1 0
of, 1 9 2 - 9 3 royal power
as h i s t o r i c a l subject, 8 3 - 8 4 j u d i c i a l s y s t e m as benefiting, 2 5 - 2 6
service of h i s t o r i c a l d i s c o u r s e to, 7 8 - 8 0 s o v e r e i g n t y t h e o r y as benefiting, 34-
S t a t e r a c i s m u s e d as a l t e r n a t i v e to, 81- 35, 116-17
82 r u r a l i n d e b t e d n e s s , 170
See also F r e n c h R e v o l u t i o n ; r e b e l l i o n R u s s i a , Tsarist, 2 8 5
508 Index
SA, 2 5 9 society
45-46 1 6 , 18-19, 1 6 3 - 6 5
p y r a m i d structure of, 51
science
ternary structure of, 51, 73
disciplinarization of, 182
Soissons vase, 125, 1 2 6 , 1 5 0 , 152
exact sciences, relation to human
Solon, 53, 2 8 3
sciences, 3 8
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr, 287
history of, 1 7 8 - 8 2
institutionalized, p o w e r of, 9 - 1 0 , sovereignty
181 35-38
Index 309
Soviet state
surveillance, continuous, and control of
psychiatry in, 12
the b o d y , 3 6 , 242, 251
race w a r interpreted as class w a r in, survival of the fittest, 8 0 , 2 5 6
82-83, 262 swamps, draining ot, by State, 245
Spain, 2 8 5 Syndicat de la magistrature, 3 9
Sparta, 1 0 6
SS, 2 5 9
Stalinism
analysis of, 275 Tacitus, 124
r e t r e a t of, 13 Tarault, J . E., 122
similarities to democratic society, 2 7 6 taxation, 1 4 6 , 151
State, the Telegram 71, 2 6 0 , 2 6 4 n . 5
actualization of, from virtual relations theoretical systems (global, totalitarian)
of power, 2 2 7 - 2 8 inhibiting effect of, 6 - 1 2
administration of, rationality in, 1 7 0 struggle against, of localized
birth of, from w a r , 5 0 , 8 9 - 9 0 , 9 3 - 9 9 knowledge, 12
death and succession of States, 1 1 9 Thierry, Amedee, 6 0
disciplinary p o w e r of, 2 5 0 - 5 1 Thierry, Augustin, 5 0 , 6 0 , 117, 137, 142,
knowledge of itself, 1 2 8 - 2 9
2 0 7 , 2 2 6 , 233-36, 283
murderous and suicidal, 2 5 8 - 6 0
Thiers, A . , 8 0 , 2 2 6
nations within and forming, 134, 142-
Third Estate
43, 223-24
history of, 2 0 6 , 2 0 8 - 1 0
official history of, 1 7 7 - 7 8 , 1 8 5 - 8 6 , 224
as nation, 217-22
p o w e r relationships of, as w a r , 4 6 - 5 1 ,
nobility's resistance to, 143-44, 1 6 5 ,
88 235
as protector of racial purity, 8 1 - 8 2 Third Reich, 57, 8 2
rise and fall of, 193 totalitarian society, similarities to
struggle to control, 2 2 5 - 2 6 , 2 3 6 democratic society, 275-77
unity of, 1 1 9 - 2 0 towns
S t a t e racism, 8 1 - 8 2 , 8 9 , 2 3 9 , 2 5 4 - 6 3 , freedom of, 2 0 I , 2 0 4 - 6
283, 2 8 5 - 8 6 planned, 2 5 0 - 5 1
struggle. See class struggle; war w a r with feudalism, 234-35
subjects tragedy, 174-76
created from relations of subjugation, Shakespearean, 174
45, 284 Trotsky, Leon, 2 8 2
history w r i t t e n from the point of Trotskyites, 275
view of, 1 6 8
Troy, myth of, 75. 115-18, 122, 163-64
relation to the king, 217, 2 4 0
truth
sovereignty constituted from
discourses of, effect of power on, 24-
(Hobbes), 2 8 - 2 9 , 43-46
27
succession, from old to new regimes,
disinterested search for, by
question of legitimacy, 1 1 9 , 147
philosophers, 52-54, 283
310 Index
t r u t h (continued) p e r p e t u a l , to r e v e n g e old w r o n g s ,
m i s t a k e n l y a s s u m e d to be on the s i d e a p p e a l of to t h e m a s s e s , 5 6 - 5 7
of p e a c e a n d o r d e r , 17} p e r p e t u a l a n d u n e n d i n g , in h i s t o r y ,
n e u t r a l , ideal of, 52-54 111, 172-74, 215-16
o n e - s i d e d , of p h i l o s o p h i c a l p o l i t i c s a s , 15-16, 4 7 - 4 8 , 1 6 5 , 2 5 9 , 2 8 1
c o m b a t a n t s , 52-54, 57 p o w e r as, 15-19, 23, 4 6 - 5 1 , 8 8 , 1 6 3 - 6 5
p r o d u c t i o n of, d e m a n d e d b y p o w e r , p r i m a c y of, i n r e s p e c t to o t h e r
24-25 r e l a t i o n s , 47, 5 9 - 6 0 , 1 5 5 - 5 8 , 1 6 3 - 6 5 ,
Tudor dynasty, 1 0 0 215-16
T u r k e y , 75 p r i v a t e , a b o l i t i o n of, 4 8 - 4 9
twentieth century (from the 1 9 5 0 s ) , b e t w e e n r a c e s , l 8 t h - c e n t u r y i d e a of,
a t t a c k s on conventional institutions 239
d u r i n g , 5-6 State monopoly on, 48-49
S t a t e s formed by, 9 4 - 9 5
s t u d y of, 47, 215-16, 2 2 6
ultrareaction, 229 superseded by economic and political
u n i v e r s a l , a g e n t of, in h i s t o r y , 2 3 6 - 3 7 struggle, in the State, 225-26, 236
u n i v e r s i t i e s , n o r m a l i z a t i o n of t o t a l , t h r e a t to o w n p o p u l a t i o n , 257-
k n o w l e d g e s in, 182-84 60
u r b a n s o c i e t y , 2}4-}5, 2 4 5 . See alio v i c t o r y in, m i l i t a r y o r g a n i z a t i o n as
towns key, 1 5 8 - 6 0
See also c i v i l w a r ; c l a s s s t r u g g l e
w a r l o r d , G e r m a n i c , 1 4 8 - 5 0 , 152
V a u b a n , Sebastien le P r e s t r e d e , 1 7 0 Warr, John, 107
Vietnam war, 285 w a r r i o r a r i s t o c r a c y , G e r m a n i c , 148-54,
v i r u s e s , a r t i f i c i a l , 254 160-61
V u i l l e m i n , J u l e s , ix W a r s of R e l i g i o n , 3 5 , 117-21
w e a p o n s , confiscation of, from
c o n q u e r e d Gauls, 1 5 0 , 1 5 8 - 5 9
war Weber, Max, 287
B o u l a i n v i l l i e r s ' s a n a l y s i s of, 1 5 5 - 6 5 W e s t e r n s o c i e t i e s , fear of o v e r u s e of
of e v e r y m a n against e v e r y m a n power in, 2 7 6
(Hobbes), 89-93 W i l l i a m t h e C o n q u e r o r , 72, 9 9 , 102,
internal, 216 103-5, 108
peace a s c o n t i n u a t i o n of, 1 5 - 1 6 , 5 0 - 5 1 w o r k e r s h o u s i n g , 251
perpetual, between groups
(Bougainvilliers), 162-63
p e r p e t u a l , of H o b b e s , 8 9 - 9 3 , 162 Yom Kippur War, 285