An overview of the most significant concepts and histories in the Italian thinker Giorgio Agamben's magnum opus, the nine-volume Homo Sacer series. In this celebrated work, Agamben provides a delicate and complex interweaving of his views on a wide range of themes including sovereignty, and the state of exception, the Aristotelean distinction between potentiality and actuality, through to the impossibility of stating the existence of language in words and the form-of-life lived beyond all forms of law. Requiring no prior knowledge of the text Colby Dickinson provides a guide to understanding why this series is one of the most significant philosophical texts of the past century. Key features: - The first introductory text to Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer series - Explains the series both to those unfamiliar with the series and to those more versed in his philosophy - Explores key concepts, including sovereignty, potentiality, form-of-life, the state of exception, inoperativity, glory and the messianic as they reappear throughout the series. Colby Dickinson is Associate Professor of Theology at Loyola University, Chicago.