Best Gramsci Book?

[The Grey Blur]

sorry this isn't strictly theory, mods can move it if necessary. i'm just wondering what users here recommend books-wise on gramsci? on amazon they have about 6 or 7 different titles, from 'gramsci reader'-type guides to selected and collected prison writings, which has left me a bit confused as to what would be best for a general introduction to the man and his ideas.

thanks a lot.

[ComradeOm]

I found The Modern Prince to be highly thought provoking. My copy is in the International Publisher's edition of The Modern Prince and Other Writings but, to be honest, I found the 'other writings' to be less interesting when removed from their immediate context of 1920s Italy

[graymouser]

There's a point to having the top 2 Amazon results if you are looking for Gramsci. The Forgacs Antonio Gramsci Reader has a good selection of his pre-prison writings, including some fairly crucial stuff on the Southern Question that he wrote in the PCdI. The International Publishers Selections from the Prison Notebooks is what it says on the cover, including the crucial sections such as the Modern Prince and so on. The latter volume also has a 70+ page long introduction that goes in some depth to introduce Gramsci's situation and his ideas.

You should avoid the earlier International Publishers release, which is called The Modern Prince and Other Writings, because the translator used a heavy hand in "correcting" the rather obscure terminology that Gramsci used to get around his prison censors. Now, you can't take this stuff at face value - he really was talking about some pretty straightforward Marxist concepts - but the prevailing discourse about Gramsci uses his cloaked terminology. Also, the "Modern Prince" volume contains only writings you would get if you bought the other two.

If you are looking to get into Gramsci broadly, including the pre-prison work, the Reader is the way to go; but if you want to study mostly the prison writings, get the Selections. You won't go wrong with either. The only other one I'd even check out is the Cambridge volume of the Pre-Prison Writings, although I don't have it. Also - although it should go without saying, read the introductions to the books! Gramsci is a difficult writer without the obfuscations, but people get so tangled in the words he was using in the Prison Notebooks that they spin entire webs of confusion around them.

[The Grey Blur]

thanks alot for the quick response lads, think i'll get reader/selected prison writings and maybe the modern prince at a later point.

[Red Commissar]

If it's worth anything now I have the Quintin Hoare "Selections from the Prison Notebooks" which I find to be a good overview. It has a fairly through intro/bio of Gramsci and his life, and picks some of the more important features from his prison notebooks, notably:

-Role of Intellectuals
-Notes on Italian History
-"The Modern Prince"
-State and Civil Society

Those are the important ones imo. There are other ones like "Americanism and Fordism" which is an interesting though rather scattered look at industrial and social relations in the United States and why it developed differently than Europe. The last segment is much more philosophical rooted, more so than the rest of his bit. I got this used for like $8 and I think it was a nice buy.

On top of this I got a book from a friend, "Pre-Prison Writings", part of the Cambridge series. This is more useful for contemporary look at the world then, but there are some nice bits here from his early journalistic career, like "The Revolution against Das Kapital", his L'Ordine Nuovo works, early days of the PCd'I, Comintern shitfueds, etc. And the Southern Question that Greymouser mentioned, which is an interesting look at Southern Italy (Mezzogiorno).

I don't own the Foracs version, but I do use a scan of them to quickly post some quotes. If you are interested in seeing the contents before picking that up, check this out:

http://ifile.it/2mkez7t

And again like Greymouser said, you got to be patient when you read his prison works. He wrote these disjointed and quickly, often as notes. Compounding this was his health problems and prison censors. As such when compiled they are a tough read and can be difficult, however you may be able to get some important information out of it if you stick with it.

Much of Gramsci's stuff used to be on his Marxists.org page, but copyright issues resulted in much of it being taken down (seemed to be some issue with the publishers, according to the posted Marxists.org (http://marxists.org/archive/gramsci/index.htm) description, even though the translator, Hoare, cleared many of them according to this email (http://marxists.org/archive/gramsci/hoare_permission_for_spn.txt)). Before the publishers raised copyright, this is how his page on Marxists.org looked like:

http://marxism.halkcephesi.net/Antonio%20Gramsci/

Some guy put them up I guess- this is how it looked for the most part. Many of the links are broken though, I just posted it to show what was once available on the internet. At any rate, it just shows how copyright's a pain in the ass. Especially more considering that the original writer of these has been long dead and was published after his death.

[syndicat]

I would recommend Lynn Williams, Proletarian Order, for his Ordine Nuovo period, the origins of the Italian Communist Party, his disagreements with Bordiga, and his relationship to the anarcho-syndicalists.