Product Review

Gramsci has to be seen as a Marxist thinker of considerable originality who sought to harmonize historical materialism with the specifically Italian tradition in metaphysical philosophy. In his famous term, Italy since Unification had lacked ‘hegemony’ – an automatic acceptance of the right of the elite’s title to rule. ‘The Historic bloc’ of capitalist hegemonists had therefore to be explored within post 1871 Italian culture. He advocated a new proletarian hegemony evolved in a legitimate and cultural way.