The aim of this article is to show how governmentality may be used to analyze historical events and discourses, and how this historical analysis can be used as a perspective to problematize contemporary discourses. The example used in this article is from my research on life-extension handbooks published in Sweden 1700-1930, and by this I stress handbooks as a noninstitutional educative arena. I am advocating governmentality as a toolbox to analyze how various forms of power operate and how different levels of power integrate and conflict in this arena. In doing so, I recommend governmentality as a critical and empirical approach to analyze various forms of power relations and governance. I exemplify the flexibility of the toolbox by using genealogy and governmentality in combination with linguistic tools from Critical Discourse Analysis and Norman Fairclough. In this way, I want to stress the critical gaze and the importance of situation in time and space by arguing for greater respect for the variants of the concepts of genealogy and governmentality. © 2013 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.