Gramsci's Political Analysis

In this new introduction to Antonio Gramsci's thought, James Martin reconstructs the central analytical themes of the Italian Marxist's famous Prison Notebooks : the 'organic' intellectuals, the relation between state and civil society, and the revolutionary party. A re-evaluation of the central analytical themes contained in Gramsci's "Prison Notebooks": the "organic" intellectuals; the relation between state and civil society; and the revolutionary party. In this text, the contemporary relevance of his concept "hegemony" to the analyses of state legitimacy is critically considered and the limitations of Gramsci's historicist Marxism to understanding social complexity are outlined.