Antonio Gramsci - Thought

Thought

Gramsci is seen by many as one of the most important Marxist thinkers of the twentieth century, in particular as a key thinker in the development of Western Marxism. He wrote more than 30 notebooks and 3000 pages of history and analysis during his imprisonment. These writings, known as the Prison Notebooks, contain Gramsci's tracing of Italian history and nationalism, as well as some ideas in Marxist theory, critical theory and educational theory associated with his name, such as:

• Cultural hegemony as a means of maintaining and legitimising the capitalist state.
• The need for popular workers' education to encourage development of intellectuals from the working class.
• An analysis of the modern capitalist state that distinguishes between political society, which dominates directly and coercively, and civil society, where leadership is constituted by means of consent.
• "Absolute historicism".
• A critique of economic determinism that opposes fatalistic interpretations of Marxism.
• A critique of philosophical materialism.