Prison Notebooks

Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) is widely celebrated as the most original political thinker in Western Marxism and an all-around outstanding intellectual figure. Arrested and imprisoned by the Italian Fascist regime in 1926, Gramsci died before fully regaining his freedom. Nevertheless, in his prison notebooks, he recorded thousands of brilliant reflections on an extraordinary range of subjects, establishing an enduring intellectual legacy.

Columbia University Press's multivolume Prison Notebooks is the only complete critical edition of Antonio Gramsci's seminal writings in English. The notebooks' integral text gives readers direct access not only to Gramsci's influential ideas but also to the intellectual workshop where those ideas were forged. Extensive notes guide readers through Gramsci's extraordinary series of reflections on an encyclopedic range of topics. Volume 3 contains notebooks 6, 7, and 8, in which Gramsci develops his concepts of hegemony, civil society, and the state; reflects extensively on the Renaissance, the Reformation, and Machiavelli's political philosophy; and offers a trenchant critique of the cultural and political practices of fascism. A detailed analysis of positivism and idealism brings Gramsci's philosophy of praxis and conception of historical materialism into sharp relief. Also included are the author's extensive observations on articles and books read during his imprisonment.

"Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks is one of the fundamental texts of modern thought. Politics, cultural studies, philosophy, history, the dialectic& mdash;everything is here. Joseph A. Buttigieg's translation is a superb achievement." -- Fredric Jameson, Duke University

Joseph A. Buttigieg is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English and a fellow of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of A Portrait of the Artist in Different Perspective and has edited or coedited a number of volumes, including The Legacy of Antonio Gramsci, Criticism Without Boundaries, Gramsci and Education, and European Christian Democracy.

While in prison, Gramsci wrote a series of notebooks covering an extraordinarily wide range of issues; they are his principal achievement. Written without thought of publication, the pages of Gramsci's notebooks record and reveal this interests in history and historiography, the role of intellectuals in society, political theory, philosophy, Americanism and Fordism, religion, education, cultural analysis, literature, folklore, and linguistics.

Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) is widely regarded as the most original political thinker in the tradition of Western Marxism and an outstanding intellectual figure. Arrested and imprisoned by the Italian Fascist regime in 1926, Gramsci died before fully regaining his freedom. Yet his voluminous notebooks-thousands of pages of brilliant reflections on an extraordinary range of subjects, written within the confines of his prison cell-established an enduring intellectual legacy. Hailed as "definitive" by Terry Eagleton in the "Guardian," Columbia's multivolume "Prison Notebooks" is the only complete critical edition of these seminal writings in English. This volume features notebooks six, seven, and eight, in which Gramsci develops his concepts of hegemony, civil society, and the state; reflects extensively on the Renaissance, the Reformation, and Machiavelli's political philosophy; and offers a trenchant critique of the cultural and political practices of fascism. Gramsci's philosophy of praxis and conception of historical materialism are also brought into relief by a detailed critique of positivism and idealism. These notebooks contain Gramsci's extensive observations on the enormous number of articles and books he read during his imprisonment, allowing readers to enrich their understanding of the cultural politics and political culture of the fascist era. Accompanying critical notes clarify Gramsci's historical and cultural references, identify his sources, and place his ideas in the context of his earlier writings and letters.

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