History of madness / Michel Foucault ; edited by, Jean Khalfa ; translated by,Jonathan Murphy and Jean Khalfa.

"This edition is a translation of 'Histoire de la folie a l'age classique,' Editions GALLIMARD, Paris, 1972"--T.p. verso.

Challenging entrenched views of madness and reason, History of Madness is one of the classics of 20th century thought. It is Foucault's first major work, written in a dazzling and sometimes enigmatic literary style. It also introduces many of the inspiring and radical themes that he was to write about throughout his life, above all the nature of power and social exclusion. History of Madness begins in the Middle Ages with vivid descriptions of the exclusion and confinement of lepers. Why Foucault asks, when the leper houses were emptied at the end of the Middle Ages, were they turned into places of confinement for the mad? Why, within the space of several months in,Translated from the French.