Marxist, journalist, political leader and social theorist Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) was a small, disabled, chronically ill man from a poverty-stricken Sardinian background. He was also someone about whom the Italian fascist state famously declared: “We must prevent this brain from functioning for twenty years.”
Gramsci was arrested and imprisoned in 1926 at the age of 35, ten years before Benito Mussolini declared his empire in Africa. During concentrated periods, in which he was allowed pen and paper in his cell, he wrote copious notes in 33 school exercise books. Gramsci recorded his thoughts on theory and strategy, ranging across history, politics, philosophy and culture.
