Gramsci

by James Joll

Antonio Gramsci (Modern Masters) [Nov 30, 1978] Joll, James

Genres: Philosophy, Biography, History, Politics, Italy, Nonfiction, Sociology

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

ames Bysse Joll FBA (21 June 1918 – 12 July 1994) was a British historian and university lecturer whose works included The Origins of the First World War and Europe Since 1870. He also wrote on the history of anarchism and socialism.

Life and career
Joll was born on 21 June 1918 in Bristol[1] and was educated at Winchester, the University of Bordeaux and New College, Oxford. He left to join the British Army in 1940, eventually serving in the Special Operations Executive. He returned to Oxford after World War II, completed his studies, and became an instructor there. He was a Fellow and Tutor in Politics from 1947 until 1950. He then transferred to St Antony's College. In 1955 he met the painter and art historian John Golding;[2] the two men formed a long relationship which lasted until Joll's death.[3]

While at Oxford, Joll wrote a book on the Second International (1955) and a book on Léon Blum, Walter Rathenau, and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, called Intellectuals in Politics (1960). In 1964 he published The Anarchists, which showed his intertwined interests in the culture, events, political philosophy, and individual personalities forming the history of a Leftist movement.

In 1967 Joll left St Antony's, Oxford to teach at the London School of Economics, as the Stevenson Professor of International History.[1] His best known work was Europe Since 1870: an International History, which appeared in 1973. He returned to biography in 1977, with his book on Italian Marxist intellectual Antonio Gramsci; he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in the same year. Several prizes in the Department of International History at the London School of Economics remain named in his honour. Later, he gave refuge to Anthony Blunt, Golding's colleague at the Courtauld Institute and former teacher, after Blunt's exposure as a former Soviet spy, for which Joll was attacked in the press.[2]

Following his retirement in 1981, he became Emeritus Professor of the University of London.

Joll died 12 July 1994 from the cancer of the larynx.[1] In his obituary notice for The Independent newspaper, the historian Sir Michael Howard, noted:

Joll's real focus was the history of ideas broadly conceived – philosophical, ethical and aesthetic, as well as political – and the interface between this and the political history of Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. He firmly believed that history was made by people rather than by dispassionate forces. But he also believed that one could not understand why people act as they do unless one also understands the influences that moulded their minds.[2]

Reviews

[Sara Sheikhi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good historical overview of Gramsci and the circumstances that formed his philosophical works. The context is important since it explains how Gramsci himself tried to "live" his philosophy - praxis philosophy.

[Alireza Saramad · Rating 3 out of 5]

در واقع ۲.۵
به پایان رسید اما چیز خاصی در مورد ایده های گرامشی نگفت. کتاب بنظر من بیشتر زندگی نامه ی گرامشی بود و از آنجا که او به پیوند ذاتی فلسفه و عمل معتقد بوده، نویسنده ناگزیر در کتابش به مسائل فکری او پرداخته که ما را ممکن است به این اشتباه بیندازد که کتاب چیزی مثل کتابهای نشر مرکز(سری متفکران انتقادی) در مورد اندیشه ی متفکران مختلف است.
راضی کننده نبود، و مثلا مفهوم هژمونی خیلی باز نشد.
هرچند یک نکته ای هم هست و آن اینکه گرامشی برخلاف ذهنیت پیشینم، خیلی هم سطح بالا فکر نمیکرده، هرچند بوخارین و ماتریالیسم جزم گرا و پوزیتیویسم را رد میکرده، اما باز به اندیشه های الهیاتی مارکسیسم و قوانین تاریخ! و ... معتقد بوده است. در مورد نظرش در مورد احزاب سیاسی هم هرچند نه بقدر شورویها دیکتاتور ولی بازم طرفدار انضباط، و با اینکه به توده ی مردم و ایفای نقششان در حزب و دموکراسی مشارکتی معتقد بوده، باز بنظرم ایده های خطرناکی داشته که ممکن بوده در صورت تحقق باز فاجعه بیافریند. بعضی لحظات کتاب میگفتم این فوکو کجاست یک پشت دستی به این دوستمان بزند؟
یک سوال هم باقی ماند: ایا او spina bifida داشت؟ چرا فکر کردم چنین است؟
احتمالا پرونده ی گرامشی خواندن برایم بسته شد.
خداحافظ پسر ساردینا، من هم بیزارم از بی تفاوت ها، چه خوب که نگفتی ترسو ها ☹

[Vik · Rating 2 out of 5]

quick read but not much useful.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting basic biography of Gramsci and a basic - albeit somewhat muddled - introduction to his key ideas and influences. Nevertheless, Jolls has an infantile and fundamentally anti-communist historical view of the movement outside of Italy, which spoils this book

[Peter Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reasonable basic introduction to the life and thought of Antonio Gramsci, written in the seventies and part of the reading list from my undergraduate political philosophy course in the early nineties. Possibly a little dated now, but a fair starting point.

[John Ferngrove · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gramsci's name has cropped up over the years in my reading on political philosophy. What commentaries I have read suggest an approach to revolutionary Marxism that keeps hold of the humanity that was lost by those revolutionaries who were so utterly corrupted by contact with real power. Over the years I've thought several times that I should have read Marx's Capital, just on principle as someone engaged with political thought. But this little book has convinced me once and for all that I have never been or never will be any kind of actual Marxist. For me, Marx's fundamental error was his reification of the concept of class as though any class, Working or otherwise, was an actual thing that could be relied upon to choose and behave in rational and predictable ways and cohere in 'solidarity' of any sort. Thus I am spared the task of reading Marx. Phew! Gramsci himself comes across as a sympathetic figure, tragically locked away by Mussolini for the last years of his life reduced to philosophising about the way to accomplish the revolution purely in the abstract.

[David]

Biografia

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short, clear, and helpful introduction to Gramsci.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in just two short days. Despite it's big words and difficult concepts to do with history, politics and contemporary culture, I flew through it and my mind was buzzing as I read every page.
Joll writes in a way that is interesting for the reader - instead of trying to outsmart them by using such difficult terminology, yet he still retains and keeps it as an interesting and intellectual read.
My only criticism would be that the cover isn't appealing to look at! For me anyway, but I am very bookcover-shallow!

[Summer Reading]

Simon