THIS IS HOW YOU DO A SCHOLARLY ANTHOLOGY!

Biopolitics covers the major developments in the theory originally advanced by Foucault in the closing chapters of the The History of Sexuality, Vol I, that life itself had become the terrain of politics, and that power had transformed from an ancient sovereign power equipped with the sword, to a modern knowledge/power invisibly working its normalizing measures through every extremity of the population. Foucault never fully developed his theory, but it was taken up wide array of philosophers and political theoreticians, most notably Giorgio Agamben and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri in Empire.

Campbell and Sitze have done an invaluable service collecting the various readings into one volume. I appreciate the inclusion of Hannah Arendt as a late humanist foundation to the most esoteric works later on, and the inclusion of pieces by Zizek, Deluze, and Badiou as the 'limits' of biopolitical thought. The introduction is in and of itself an impressive piece of synthesis, looking at the many definitions of biopolitics.

This book is invaluable for a newcomer to the field, could easily be used as the core of a graduate seminar, and even for someone familiar with the works, puts them in useful conversation.