Breaking the Bonds of Fate

"Offering a new perspective on Epicurus, this book provides an impressive presentation of Marx's materialism from an Epicurean point of view. Absolutely fascinating!" ~Michael Heinrich, author of "Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society"

"This is a book we have long needed. A dark corner of the young Marx’s intellectual formation is convincingly lit up, by an author with an impressive command of both Epicurean atomism and the history of 19th-century German philosophy." ~David Sedley, University of Cambridge

"Breaking the Bonds of Fate is a splendid contribution to intellectual history. With a combination of panache and scholarly rigour Foster presents Epicurus as a major influence on Marx and Marxism. in Epicurus Karl Marx found a highly congenial philosophy thanks to the Greek thinker's materialism, naturalistic physics, anthropology and rejection of fatalistic determinism. This book casts new light on the ancient thinker's presuppositions and the German context of Marx's doctoral dissertation on the differences between Democritus and Epicurus." ~A.A.Long, author of "Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics"

"A breathtaking intellectual, philosophical, and political history of Epicurus and Marx for which there is no equivalent. This is the final and culminating book in Foster’s trilogy and for me, the most synthetic and powerful. Marx and Epicurus is the kind of extremely well researched book that will be cited for many years to come on this topic." ~Thomas Nail, Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Denver. Author of 'Marx in Motion: A New Materialist Marxism and Lucretius I, II, and III'