Who Was Antonio Gramsci?
Antonio Gramsci was one of the most prolific and creative political thinkers of the twentieth century. Although his ideas did not receive considerable attention during his lifetime, the concepts contained in his magnum opus, The Prison Notebooks, provided inspiration for a generation of political scientists, theorists, and politicians on both the left and right...
4/28/2025
The Prison Notebooks and Intellectuals
On March 19, 1927, Antonio Gramsci, while awaiting trial, wrote a letter to his sister-in-law, Tatiana Schucht. In this letter, Gramsci described his desire to embark on an ambitious intellectual project that would “...absorb and provide a center to [his] inner life.” He listed four subjects that he would systematically study over the span of his potential prison sentence...
4/28/2025
Tony Benn and the Shop Steward Movement: An Attempt to Build Working Class Intellectuals?
Tony Benn, born Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn, was one of the most prominent and controversial figures in twentieth century British politics. Born in 1925 to an upper-class family, Tony Benn's early life was immensely political. His father was a labour minister under Prime Minister Ramsay McDonald, and later became a Labour hereditary peer...
4/28/2025
The Concept of Hegemony
Unlike other books on political theory, The Prison Notebooks are not an abstract treatise on political concepts, but rather a practical manual that attempts to explain the rise of fascism and the failure of the socialist movement during the interwar years. Through his explanation, Antonio Gramsci repurposes pre-existing political terms into wholly original concepts...
4/28/2025
War of Position
In hindsight, the political and social developments of the Interwar Period (1918-1939) in Europe seem obvious and inevitable. However, for a brief period following the end of the First World War, it appeared to many that the socialist revolution Karl Marx had promised was about to take place. In 1917, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Tsar and established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)...
4/28/2025
Gramsci's Protégés
The ideas contained in Gramsci's Prison Notebooks have gone on to inspire political thinkers on both the left and the right.
