Acknowledgements

A Note on the Text

Preface

Chapter One
The Moment of Reading ‘Capital’

1.1. ‘I can only think of Gramsci…’
1.2. Reading ‘Capital’ in its moment
1.3. ‘The last great theoretical debate of Marxism’
1.3.1. Althusserianism
1.3.2. Gramscianism
1.4. Marxist philosophy
1.4.1. ‘A new philosophy of praxis’
1.4.2. ‘A new practice of philosophy’
1.4.3. Marxism and philosophy
1.5. The Althusserian and Gramscian moments
1.5.1. Gramsci’s organic concepts
1.5.2. An enduring encounter
1.5.3. Marxist philosophy today
1.6. Philosophy, hegemony and the state: ‘metaphysical event’ and ‘philosophical fact’

Chapter Two
Antinomies of Antonio Gramsci?

2.1. Incompletion and reconstruction
2.2. A theoretical toolbox?
2.3. ‘Antinomies of Antonio Gramsci’
2.4. 1+1=3
2.5. Detours via detours
2.6. The emergence of hegemony…
2.7. …and its deformation
2.8. Three versions of hegemony in the West
2.9. Political society + civil society = state
2.10. Shadows of Croce
2.11. East and West, past and present
2.12. Antinomies of the united front
2.13. The spectre of Kautsky
2.14. A labyrinth within a labyrinth?

Chapter Three
‘A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery inside an Enigma’? On the Literary Form of the Prison Notebooks

3.1. Traces of the past
3.1.1. An arbitrary and mechanical hypostatisation of the moment of hegemony
3.1.2. A strategy of detours
3.1.3. State, integral state, political society
3.1.4. Base and superstructure, superstructures and Ideologies
3.2. Code language
3.2.1. A helmet of Hades?
3.2.2. From ‘m.’ to the ‘philosophy of praxis’
3.3. Hieroglyphs
3.3.1. ‘Für ewig’
3.3.2. Three phases of work
3.3.2.1. First phase
3.3.2.2. Second phase
3.3.2.3. Third phase
3.4. Incompletion: a work in progress
3.4.1. Fragmentary philology
3.4.2. An anti-philosophical novel
3.5. An unfinished dialogue
3.5.1. The education of the educator
3.5.2. Necessary incompletion
3.6. An Ariadne’s thread
3.6.1. Preliminary philology
3.6.2. Differential temporalities
3.6.3. A modern classic

Chapter Four
Contra the Passive Revolution

4.1. The ‘integral state’
4.2. The long nineteenth century
4.3. The birth of civil society
4.4. Passive revolution
4.5. War of position
4.6. ‘War of position’ versus ‘war of movement’
4.7. Two phases of passive revolution
4.8. Duration versus historical epoch
4.9. Crisis of authority
4.10. Modernity as passive revolution?

Chapter Five
Civil and Political Hegemony

5.1. Consent versus coercion
5.1.1. ‘Political leadership becomes an aspect of domination’
5.1.2. The ‘dual perspective’
5.2. Civil society versus the state
5.2.1. Superstructural ‘levels’
5.2.2. ‘The concept of civil society as used in these notes…’
5.2.3. The state as the ‘truth’ of civil society
5.2.4. The ‘particularity’ of the integral state
5.2.5. Civil society as the ‘secret’ of the state
5.2.6. Political society sive the state?
5.2.7. Attributes of the integral state
5.2.8. The ‘location’ of hegemony

Chapter Six
‘The Realisation of Hegemony’

6.1. West versus East
6.1.1. Predominance as weakness
6.1.2. The ‘underdeveloped’ West
6.1.3. The absent centre of the West
6.1.4. Antinomies of East and West
6.1.5. The international capitalist state-form
6.1.6. Differential temporalities of the state
6.2. Hegemony, bourgeois and proletarian
6.2.1. A generic theory of social power?
6.2.2. The hegemonic apparatus: political power as immanent to class power
6.2.3. Which Lenin?
6.2.4. The realisation of hegemo

“Peter Thomas's book should become the standard text in English on Gramsci's thought. Acquainted as he is with the latest wrinkle in the Italian debate on Gramsci, Thomas combines an unmatched philological research into the sources and a mastery of the ongoing debates about the sense we should make of key ideas like hegemony. He deftly overturns the received orthodoxy and the various abuses of the ideas of the marxist militant by theorists of cultural studies, both restoring Gramsci's work to its true status and opening up fruitful possibilities for understanding his contribution to political theory more generally. The best book on Gramsci's political theory for three decades.”
Alastair Davidson, Author of Antonio Gramsci. the Man, his Ideas and Antonio Gramsci: Towards an Intellectual Biography

“Peter Thomas's Gramsci is the one we need in an era of economic and geopolitical crises that bears some resemblances to Gramsci's own time. This Gramsci is no embarrassed culturalist, confused strategist, or incipient post-Marxist. Thomas's Gramsci, developed from rigorous critical study of the Prison Notebooks and of the now extensive scholarly literature, is a deeply consequent thinker intent on reconstructing revolutionary Marxism in opposition to the most advanced bourgeois thought of his day. This is also a Gramsci for whom political economy is of central methodological and substantive significance. Not content with scholarly interpretation, Thomas draws his Gramsci into dialogue with contemporary radical thought, illuminating both sides of the conversation. This is a book that will recast the understanding of Gramsci, especially but not exclusively in the Anglophone world.”
Alex Callinicos, Professor of European Studies, Social Theory and International Political Economy, King's College, London

“What superlatives can I use to describe this book? Terms like ‘outstanding,’ ‘superb’ and ‘tour-de-force’ suggest themselves, but even these do not fully capture the extraordinary power of The Gramscian Moment. Peter Thomas’s erudite, wide-ranging, and staggeringly sophisticated reading of Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks completely overturns the dominant interpretations including those of Louis Althusser and Perry Anderson. Never again will we be able to read Gramsci solely through their lenses. Henceforth, Thomas’s magisterial exploration of Gramsci’s thought will become the critical point of reference for all serious work in the field. But Thomas does more than meticulous exegesis. He also insists on the actuality of Gramsci’s work, urging that we approach it in the spirit of “both continuation and transformation, fidelity and renewal.” He succeeds brilliantly on all counts.”
David McNally, Professor of Political Science, York University, Toronto

“Peter Thomas's The Gramscian Moment demonstrates the extent to which Gramsci’s thought represents a singular synthesis of virtually the entire tradition of Western political thought. The richness of his interpretative frameworks allows him both to integrate partial approaches and contributions and to throw new light on the central questions inherited by this tradition. This work succeeds in presenting Gramsci as a 'living classic', an author absolutely central to our understanding of modernity. Given its scope, richness and originality, I have no doubt that this work will represent a milestone in Gramscian scholarship and an important contribution to contemporary debates in political theory and philosophy.”
Stathis Kouvelakis, Author of Philosophy and Revolution and Co-editor of a Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism

“The Gramscian Moment is the most thorough and illuminating philosophical study of Gramsci yet to appear in English. It sets a new standard for work not only on Gramsci himself but on the whole complex of issues associate

All those interested in Gramsci's Prison Notebooks, Marxist theory, political science, sociology and international relations, as well as the history of ideas, modern philosophy and contemporary political movements and radical thought

Peter D. Thomas (Ph.D, 2008) studied at the University of Queensland,
Freie Universität Berlin, L’Università “Federico II”, Naples, and the
Universiteit van Amsterdam. He has published widely on Marxist
political theory and philosophy. He is a member of the editorial board
of the journal Historical Materialism: research in critical Marxist
theory