Of gramsciology: Peter D. Thomas, the Gramscian moment: philosophy, hegemony and Marxism, Brill, Leiden and Boston MA, 2009. 477 pp., £104.00 hb., 978 9 00416 771 1.

According to Peter Thomas, Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks (1929–35) contain ‘a vision of Marxist philosophy, radically different from many previous and contemporary formulations, which may permit a new generation of Marxists to recommence the elaboration of Marx’s legacy in a new philosophical form’. The book thus firmly situates itself within a new body of literature that takes as its point of departure the necessity to revitalize the Marxist tradition today. The ‘vision of Marxist philosophy’ that Thomas believes has most to contribute to this agenda is Gramsci’s ‘philosophy of praxis’, and in this comprehensive analysis and assessment of its key elements, and of its principal critics, the author mounts an authoritative case for placing Gramsci right at the centre of any resurgence of contemporary Marxism.