Michel Foucault is arguably one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century, and his works are some of the most difficult to grasp. In Michel Foucault: Materialism and Education, Mark Olssen offers one of the most accessible overviews of Foucault's thought available to educators and general readers, putting into context the relevance of Foucault's thought for contemporary educational philosophy and theory. Olssen adds new insights to Foucault scholarship by bringing to light the influences of Marx, Nietzsche, Gramsci, Habermas, and other on Foucault's development as a thinker, and on the deep historical materialist stand that gardens and uniquely characterizes so much of Foucault's thought.