Discipline and Punish vs The Denial of Death: Which Should You Read?

Discipline and Punish Michel Foucault · 1975 ★★★★☆ 4.1 333 pages · ≈ 6 h 10 m · Challenging

“On 2 March 1757 Damiens the regicide condemmed 'to make the amende honorable before the main door of the Church of Paris', where he was to be 'taken and conveyed in a cart, wearing nothing but a a shirt, holding a torch of burning wax weighing two pounds'; then, 'in the said cart, to the place de Greve, where, on a scaffold that will be erected there, the flesh will be torn from his breasts, arms,”

English version of "Surveiller et punir: naissance de la prison"

The Denial of Death Ernest Becker · 1973 ★★★★☆ 3.9 315 pages · ≈ 5 h 50 m · Moderate

“The first thing we have to do with heroism is to lay bare its underside, show what gives human heroics its specific nature and impetus.”

The Denial of Death is a 1973 book by American cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker which discusses the psychological and philosophical implications of how people and cultures have reacted to the concept of death. The…