The Revolutionary Marxism of Antonio Gramsci

Historical Materialism #62

by Frank Rosengarten

Antonio Gramsci was not only one of the most original and significant communist leaders of his time but also a creative thinker whose contributions to the renewal of Marxism remain pertinent today. In The Revolutionary Marxism of Antonio Gramsci , Frank Rosengarten explores Gramsci's writings in areas as diverse as Marxist theory, the responsibilities of political leadership, and the theory and practice of literary criticism. He also discusses Gramsci's influence on the post-colonial world. Through close readings of texts ranging from Gramsci's socialist journalism in the Turin years to his prison letters and Notebooks , Rosengarten captures the full vitality of the Sardinian communist's thought and outlook on life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Philosophy

212 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

A series of disconnected articles/chapters that pull from Rosengarten's work from the 1970s to the early 2010s. A lot of good stuff on Robert Dombroski, CLR James, and Edward Said. Actual political analysis of Gramsci's actual work falls short, seeing Gramsci as a sort of semi-Trotskyist and getting facts incorrect on various basics of the Trotsky-Stalin dispute (Rosengarten says, for example, that Trotsky was expelled from the Comintern on the basis of his support for the United Front, when Trotsky was in fact expelled in 1927 before the issue of "social fascism" raised its ugly head, and the supposed affinity of Trotsky and Gramsci on this issue becomes muddled when considering Trotsky's later opposition to the policy of Popular Fronts).