Antonio Gramsci's work is pivotal for addressing history, politics, sociology, literature, and the larger field of cultural studies that draws from these and related disciplines. Gramsci's ideas have been taken up across disciplinary boundaries and national borders, and while he is most easily classified as a Marxist thinker, Gramsci's ideas of hegemony, organic intellectuals, and the subaltern classes have become an integral part of cultural theory and critical discourse. Interpretations of his work continue to reveal a more complex and rich way of looking at the dynamics of power and privilege manifested in contemporary life.

The youngest of four children, Antonio Gramsci was born in Ales, Cagliari (a rural province of Sardinia), on 22 January 1891 to parents Francesco Gramsci, a middle-class bureaucrat from Ghilarza, and Peppina Marcias, a literate woman from a well-respected family. Contrary to widely held beliefs, Antonio did not come from a peasant background; he did...