This book outlines essential issues of Antonio Gramsci¿s thought, from his relationship to other political thinkers, including Rosa Luxemburg, Lenin, and Machiavelli; the development of his key conceptual categories; and the applicability of those categories in contemporary contexts. The author demonstrates how Gramsci¿s revolutionary strategy begins with the knowledge of the subaltern classes¿ common sense, and their elements of rebellion, in order to establish a dialectical relationship between intellectuals and the masses. That relationship promotes collective intellectual progress, ultimately leading to an effective philosophy of praxis, founded on labor and a new hegemony. The book demonstrates that Gramsci¿s thought offers possibilities for understanding the serious crises of today.

Marcos Del Roio is Professor of Political Sciences at the Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brazil.

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Sources of Gramsci's theorical categories. Chapter 2: Autonomy and Antagonism in Rosa Luxemburg and Gramsci.- Chapter 3: Gramsci's 'Rosa.- Chapter 4: Gramsci and Lenin: Hegemony and the Philosophy of Praxis.- Chaper 5: Gramsci and Sorel:  Scission Spirit and Moral and Intellectual Reform.- Chapter 6. Gramsci and Machiavelli: Jacobinism mediating the Prince's movement.Translations of the passive revolution.- Chapter7. Passive revolution and the nature of our time.- Chapter 8. The particularity of the passive revolution in Brazil: translating Gramsci.- Education and hegemony.- Chapter 9. Gramsci and educating the educator.- Chapter 10. Education as reproduction of hegemony and its antithesis.- Chapter 11. Gramsci and labor as a foundation of hegemony.- Gramsci and labor as a foundation of hegemony.- Chapter 12. Class and Party in Gramsci.- Chapter 13. Gramsci and the emancipation of the subaltern classes.- Chapter 14. Postscript.