This translation is the first English edition of the original, complete French edition. It includes new several chapters and much crucial philosophical and historical material, until now, unavailable in English.Provocatively challenging entrenched views of madness and reason, it is one of the classics of twentieth-century literature. It is Foucault's first major work and written in a dazzling and 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, knowledge and exclusion.Foucault's story begins in the Middle Ages with compelling descriptions of the exclusion and confinement of lepers:* Why were the leper houses suddenly emptied at the end of the Middle Ages?* Why were the mad loaded onto ships and sent off in search of their sanity?* Why, within the space of several months in 1656, was one out of every hundred people in Paris confined?Foucault's bold answer is that throughout history, madness has meant isolation, repression and exclusion. Foucault also urges us to recognize the creative and liberating forces that madness represents, brilliantly drawing on examples from Nietzsche, Goya and Van Gogh.History of Madness is an inspiring and classic work that challenges us to understand madness, reason and power and the forces that shape them.