Selections from Political Writings: 1921-1926

by Antonio Gramsci, Quintin Hoare (Editor and Translator)

This volume is the second of two that makes available the writings of Antonio Gramsci, one of the most outstanding Marxist thinkers of Western Europe. Events chronicled in these selections include the momentous years of the foundation of the Italian Communist Party (led by Gramsci from 1924 until his arrest in 1926), the ascendancy of the Soviet Union as the authoritative force in the Communist International, and the rise and eventual triumph of fascism that forced Italian communism into nearly twenty years of illegality, and ultimately, Gramsci into prison. The crucial concerns of the articles, reports and letters are of central relevance to contemporary Marxism: the functioning of working-class power, the strategy of the united struggle against capitalism and against fascism, and the implications of proletarian internationalism.

Genres: Nonfiction

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Antonio Francesco Gramsci was an Italian Marxist philosopher, linguist, journalist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a founding member and one-time leader of the Italian Communist Party. A vocal critic of Benito Mussolini and fascism, he was imprisoned in 1926, where he remained until his death in 1937.

During his imprisonment, Gramsci wrote more than 30 notebooks and 3,000 pages of history and analysis. His Prison Notebooks are considered a highly original contribution to 20th-century political theory. Gramsci drew insights from varying sources — not only other Marxists but also thinkers such as Niccolò Machiavelli, Vilfredo Pareto, Georges Sorel, and Benedetto Croce. The notebooks cover a wide range of topics, including the history of Italy and Italian nationalism, the French Revolution, fascism, Taylorism and Fordism, civil society, the state, historical materialism, folklore, religion, and high and popular culture.
Gramsci is best known for his theory of cultural hegemony, which describes how the state and ruling capitalist class — the bourgeoisie — use cultural institutions to maintain wealth and power in capitalist societies. In Gramsci's view, the bourgeoisie develops a hegemonic culture using ideology rather than violence, economic force, or coercion. He also attempted to break from the economic determinism of orthodox Marxist thought, and so is sometimes described as a neo-Marxist. He held a humanistic understanding of Marxism, seeing it as a philosophy of praxis and an absolute historicism that transcends traditional materialism and traditional idealism.

Reviews

[Rjurik Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating collection of Gramsci's writings from the time of the split from the Italian Socialist Party and the foundation of the PCI. It includes Gramsci's theorisation of fascism (a petit-bourgeois movement to destroy worker's democracy), his slow transition to the 'united front' strategy, debates between him and his collaborators about the first PCI leader Bordiga and his group, his excellent 'Lyons theses', his famous essay on the Southern Question, and the first theorisations of many of the themes he would continue in his famous Prison Notebooks. The minutes of the PCI meetings before the Como and Lyons conferences are particularly fascinating: you almost feel like you can hear the arguments between Gramsci and Bordiga, the tension in the air, the feeling that there was so much at stake. In any case, it's an extraordinarily rich collection, sometimes uneven, but at other times brilliant.

The book might be best to read in conjunction with one of the biographies, because at times the debates can be rather hard to make sense of - 1920s Italy is a long way away. Some things are hidden too: for example, one wouldn't necessarily know that Gramsci disagreed with Bordiga's line quite a time before he was prepared to come out an argue against it.

In some ways, this book is a picture of the Comintern at the time, through the lens of Gramsci. The first impression one gets is of just how confused the movement was in the early 1920s. It also seems, alas, that the Comintern was pretty flawed from the beginning. Gramsci seems slow on many things, but then events are moving at such a pace. For example, he initially supports Stalin in the debate with the Left Opposition, but later comes to a much more critical position (and if we believe Victor Serge, had himself sent away from Russia to escape the coming conflagration). By the time Gramsci was arrested by Mussolini, he had made himself into one of the preeminent leaders of the workers movement. Creative and original.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phenomenal. Interesting to read how the young Gramsci is theorizing his activism in founding the Communist Party in Italy and trying to organize Turin workers councils. These writings in many ways serve as the catalyst regarding his later writings that he will compose while in prison.

[Burcu]

"southern question"