An introduction to Antonio Gramsci : his life, thought and legacy / George Hoare and Nathan Sperber.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Print version record.

Cover -- Contents -- A Note on the Text -- Introduction -- Thinking through Gramsci -- The structure of the book -- PART ONE Life -- 1 Antonio Gramsci, 1891-1937 -- Introduction -- Sardinian origins: Antonu su gobbu -- Turin -- Journalism and militancy -- L'Ordine Nuovo -- The Communist Party -- Prison and the Notebooks -- PART TWO Thought -- 2 Culture -- Introduction -- Intellectuals -- Defining the intellectual -- The organic intellectual and the traditional intellectual -- Intellectuals and political struggle -- Education

Defining educationThe school -- The dialectic of conformity and spontaneity -- Journalism -- The press and the organization of culture -- The bourgeois press -- 'Integral journalism' -- Popular literature -- 3 Politics -- Introduction -- Civil society, political society and the State -- Difficult definitions -- 'East' and 'West' -- War of movement and war of position -- The interpretation of modern politics -- Gramsci's method of historical analysis -- The era of revolution-restoration -- The national-popular Jacobin revolution

The Risorgimento as 'passive revolution'Trasformismo, molecularity and scission -- Conjunctural processes and organic crises -- Caesarism -- The analysis of fascism -- The modern Prince -- What is a political party? -- The modern Prince: The incarnation of revolution -- The party as living organism -- Two errors of revolutionary strategy -- 4 Philosophy -- Redefining philosophy: The individual, philosophy and politics -- Theory, practice and philosophical anthropology -- 'Every man is a philosopher' -- Common sense -- The 'folklore of philosophy'

A pragmatist epistemologyIdeology -- Religion and the Catholic Church -- The economy: From economic base to historic bloc -- Point of departure: The base/superstructure metaphor -- The critique of economism -- Americanism and Fordism -- Point of arrival: The 'historic bloc' -- The philosophy of praxis -- Materialism, idealism and Croce -- 'Absolute historicism' -- The revolution of common sense -- 5 Hegemony -- Introduction -- Hegemony: The exercise of leadership -- Origins -- Political projects -- Consent and coercion

Hegemony: A cognitive and moral processA culture in formation -- The ethical State -- Hegemonic consciousness as catharsis -- The historical stages of hegemony -- The pre-hegemonic State -- Bourgeois hegemony -- From proletarian hegemony to the 'regulated society' -- PART THREE Applications -- 6 Thinking through Gramsci in Political Theory: Left/Right and the Critical Analysis of Common Sense -- Introduction -- Contextualizing common sense: Left/Right in politics and everyday life -- Historicizing common sense: Left/Right since the French Revolution

"This is a concise introduction to the life and work of the Italian militant and political thinker, Antonio Gramsci. As head of the Italian Communist Party in the 1920s, Gramsci was arrested and condemned to 20 years' imprisonment by Mussolini's fascist regime. It was during this imprisonment that Gramsci wrote his famous Prison Notebooks - over 2,000 pages of profound and influential reflections on history, culture, politics, philosophy and revolution. An Introduction to Antonio Gramsci retraces the trajectory of Gramsci's life, before examining his conceptions of culture, politics and philosophy. Gramsci's writings are then interpreted through the lens of his most famous concept, that of 'hegemony'; Gramsci's thought is then extended and applied to 'think through' contemporary problems to illustrate his distinctive historical methodology. The book concludes with a valuable examination of Gramsci's legacy today and useful tips for further reading. George Hoare and Nathan Sperber make Gramsci accessible for students of history, politics and philosophy keen to understand this seminal figure in 20th-century intellectual history."-- Provided by publisher.

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