ABSTRACT
The main English language sources for a study of Gramsci’s work are Hoare and Smith’s
translation of the Prison Notebooks (which, effectively supersedes an earlier collection,
The Modern Prince, apart from this latter’s important essay on ‘The Southern Question’)
and two collections of the prison letters, Hamish Hamilton’s translation published by the
Edinburgh Review and Lyn Lawner’s edition. Hoare’s Selections from Political Writings
is a recent collection of Gramsci’s earlier work as a journalist, mainly from L’Ordine
Nuovo. Wherever possible, quotations and references in the text are from these sources in
English and I am especially grateful to Lawrence & Wishart for permission to quote
extensively from Hoare and Smith. (Quotations from non-English sources are in my own
translations.)
However, a good deal of relevant material is unpublished in English. Valentino
Gerratana’s critical edition of Quaderni del Carcere in four volumes is now the standard
reference for the prison notes, as is Caprioglio and Furbini’s collection of the letters,
Lettere dal Carcere. There are several overlapping Italian collections of Gramsci’s earlier
writings (see Bibliography). However, most of the educationally relevant of these pieces
are collected (along with extracts from the Quaderni and Lettere) in two anthologies:
Manacorda’s L’Alternativa Pedagogica and Urbani’s La Formazione dell’Uomo. Of
these, the latter is the more comprehensive, following from a more generous
interpretation of what is educationally relevant.
