The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction by Michel Foucault

In The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction (1976), Michel Foucault challenges the popular "repressive hypothesis"—the idea that modern Western society has suppressed and censored sexuality since the 17th century. Instead of a narrative of repression followed by liberation, Foucault argues that the discourse on sexuality has proliferated, becoming a topic of intense scientific and political scrutiny as a new form of social control.