Gramsci's Political Thought: An Introduction

by Roger Simon

Antonio Gramsci was an innovative and wide-ranging thinker whose interpretations of Marxism helped rescue it from determinism and economic reductionism. In the words of Stuart Hall: 'Reading Gramsci has fertilised our political imagination, transformed our way of thinking, our style of thought, our whole political project'.

Gramsci’s creative use of terms such as hegemony, civil society and historic block adds a new dimension to political vocabulary. But the fragmentary nature of his writings, especially in the Prison Notebooks, means that it is not always easy to grasp the full significance of his ideas. This book, completely revised in 1991 and further revised in 2015, provides an account of Gramsci’s work which makes his writing accessible and comprehensible for the contemporary reader.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Julian Worker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent introduction into the political ideas of Antonio Gramsci, born on Sardinia in 1891 who spent the last eleven years of his life in prison, courtesy of Mussolini. He's most famous for his Prison Notebooks. What this book does so well is to make this prison writing understandable for the ordinary reader, as the notebooks have a fragmentary form that makes them difficult to comprehend.

The book also introduces the reader to the terms Gramsci used to make Marxism more understandable to those in Italy for example as he sought to explain the success of The Risorgimento where Italy became united into the country we'd recognise today. Gramsci knew what had to be put in place and when in order for a Socialist society to come into being and certain elements of this process were missing during the Risorgimento, leading to a weakness later exploited by The Fascists.

My favourite term of Gramsci's is 'Common Sense' which he used to denote the uncritical and partly unconscious way in which people perceive the world, even though he indicated that everyone was a philosopher. He also recognised that when political parties and their leaders are no longer recognised by their class as its expression, this crisis of representation means the field then becomes open for the activities of unknown forces represented by charismatic "men of destiny".

[Negar Jafari · Rating 4 out of 5]

برای آشنایی ابتدایی با اندیشه گرامشی یا برگشت و مرور این اندیشه‌ها، کتاب بسیار کاربردی و قابل اعتمادی بود. برای من جزو کتاب‌هایی قرار گرفت که به افرادی که می‌خوان خوندن گرامشی رو شروع کنن پیشنهاد میکنم.
خیلی فشرده و خیلی مقدماتی اندیشه‌ها مرور میشن، در صورتی که بعد از کتاب "دولت و جامعه مدنی" خونده شه به فهم و اثبات مطالب اون کتاب کمک قابل توجهی می‌کنه.

[Callum Hakin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gramsci might just be the guy

[Moraldo · Rating 5 out of 5]

راجر سیمون، ظاهراً خودش یه سوسیالیست ه که توی حزب کارگر انگلستان فعالیت پژوهشی می‌کرده و این کتاب رو برای کارگرها و آدم‌های معمولی نوشته تا اون‌ها رو آشنا کنه با این متفکر بزرگی که کمتر می‌شناخته‌اندش. انگلیسی‌ها رو که دیدید لابد؟ خیلی زیان ساده و بدون پیچ‌واپیچی رو سعی می‌کنند استفاده کنند. این کتاب هم همین ه: خیلی سرراست، واضح، شفاف و خوب نوشته؛ یعنی بدون ادابازی‌ها و لفاظی‌های روشنفکرانه‌ای که این چپ‌های جدید دارند.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommended read in memory of Margaret Thatcher, as Simon uses the Thatcherite project to illustrate Gramsci's devastating insights - he was talking about the turning-aside of Communist revolution in Italy; she used the same techniques to divide the working people of the UK and buy off just enough of them to turn away real change. This was my first introduction to Gramsci, and it's a good one.

[Kahfi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buku ini mengupas secara sederhana mengenai pemikiran Gramsci yang jarang dibicarakan, buku ini juga mudah dipahami dimana konsep hegemoni yang merupakan titik sentral pemikiran Gramsci dikupas secara terpisah mulai dari proses, agen, dan post hegemoni nya.
Hanya saja kelemahan buku ini karena merupakan sebuah interpretasi dari Gramscian yang rawan bias.

[Derek Baldwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very capable summary of the main themes of Antonio Gramsci's writings, and a good historical context too. Gramsci was a great great man and some of what made him great comes across in this book. I'd be keen to read a good biography though.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a well-written and easily read book. But it fails in one major respect: it is much too exegetical. It seeks to clarify exactly what Gramsci meant in his disjointed and sketchy notebooks, retaining unclarity when his notes were unclear and favouring his original historical analysis over prospective applications. This is just not very interesting, in my opinion - Gramsci's concepts are interesting because of how they have been and can be used and interpreted, not for their initial, disconnected, historically situated form.

[Ruthmiserico Ohoiwutun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buku ini saya baca sekitar 2014/2015. Bukunya bagus, terjemahannya mudah dimengerti. Dan gagasannya membantu kita memahami prinson notebooks meskipun dari sumber lain. Setelah punya buku Prison Notebook karya Gramsci saya jd lebih bersyukur sudah baca buku ini dulu. Karena ternyata terjemahan Prison Notebook memusingkan kepala. Sampai sekarang belum saya baca.

Terimakasih untuk penterjemah yg mau sangat membantu kami untuk membaca dengan kenikmatan yg hakiki karena bahasa yang gurih jadi sedah baca sambil ngopi.

[Teresa R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy buena síntesis de la obra de Gramsci, de gran ayuda para comprender la mastodóntica obra del teórico italiano. Recomendaría al lector acompañar este libro con algunos de los pasajes más destacados de Gramsci para poder tener una experiencia completa.

[Kenneth Goodall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Passable book on Gramsci coming from a Euro-communist perspective.

[Matilda]

Really good introduction to and clarification of complex ideas such as Hegemony. Helped me to understand some of the more abstract yet pertinent ideas surrounding modern politics.

[P · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable intro to Gramsci's Prison Notebooks. I appreciated the definitions of terms and basic concepts Gramsci uses. Also Stuart Hall's introductory and concluding essay helped put Gramsci in context, i.e., how to apply Gramscian styles of thinking to discussions of politics in other places and other times.

[Hussein Baoumi · Rating 5 out of 5]

life changing.

[Huw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Concise, lucid introduction to interesting ideas.