Gramsci was prisonned by the Fascists, during his time in prison he wrote over thirty of notebooks that include political and historical analysis. These writings, known as the "Prison Notebooks," include Gramsci's reflections on the history of Italy and nationalism , as well as ideas in the study of Marxism , critical theory, and the educational theory associated with his name. The notebooks were written in a conscious attempt to leave an intellectual will with an overall worldview, and even in the hope that if he could get out of jail he would have a real plan of action.
Only after the defeat of fascism in Italy, and after World War II could Gramsci's notebooks be published. The main ideas Gramsci developed in these notebooks are:
- Cultural hegemony as the main means of preserving the capitalist state .
- The need for education for the working masses in order to encourage the creation of working class intellectuals.
- The distinction between political society (police, military, legal system, etc.), which directly controls, and civil society (family, education system, trade unions), where leadership is voluntary and non-coercive.
- The historicist absolute.
- The critique of economic determinism .
- The critique of philosophical materialism . .
Although Gramsci's thought originated with the organized left, he became an important figure in academic analyzes of the cultural sciences and critical theory. Members of the Political Science from the center and the right have adopted that ideas about hegemony, for example,= and these ideas are quoted and analyzed in the writings. His influence was great in the field of political science, and in the study of popular culture. The concept of " political correctness " seems to echo a cultural struggle in the spirit of Gramsci's thought.
However, most of Gramsci's influence is on left-wing thinking, especially among thinkers belonging to the school of neo-Marxism .
