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.

Author Biography

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.