Prison Notebooks, Volume 1

Antonio Gramsci

Columbia University Press, Jan 3, 2011 - History - 2032 pages

Columbia University Press's multivolume Prison Notebooks is the only complete critical edition of Antonio Gramsci's seminal writings in English. Based on the authoritative Italian edition of Gramsci's work, Quaderni del Carcere, this comprehensive translation presents the intellectual as he ought to be read and understood, with critical notes that clarify Gramsci's history, culture, and sources; an index of names; and a contextualization of the thinker's ideas against his earlier writings and letters. This set includes notebooks 1 through 8 with all attendant notes and materials and is an indispensible resource for scholars in the humanities and social sciences.

About the author

Born to a poor family in Sardinia, Gramsci had to go to work as a child but still managed to distinguish himself as a bright and promising student. In 1910, after winning a scholarship, he attended the University of Torino, where he was influenced by Benedetto Croce and Francesco De Sanctis. He eventually rejected Croce's idealism, as well as the academic life, for Marxism and politics. His primary interest was the empowerment of the working class. He rose within the Socialist party to the position of secretary of the socialist section of Torino and founded the influential newspaper L'Ordine Nuovo (the New Order). In 1921 he cofounded the Italian Communist party and fought against Fascist policy. Elected party secretary in 1924, two years later he was arrested and sent to prison, where he produced much of his writing. He remained incarcerated until his death. Gramsci's writings chronicle the development of his thought on politics, culture, and education.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Prison Notebooks, Volume 1; European Perspectives; European perspectives : a series in social thought and cultural criticism; Prison Notebooks
• Author: Antonio Gramsci
• Editor: Joseph A. Buttigieg
• Translated by: Joseph A. Buttigieg, Antonio Callari
• Contributor: Antonio Callari
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2011
• ISBN: 023115755X, 9780231157551
• Length: 2032 pages
• Subjects: History / Europe / General; History / General; Philosophy / Political; Political Science / History & Theory; Political Science / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism; Political Science / Political Ideologies / Radicalism; Social Science / General