Thomas, an editor of the journal Historical materialism, here offers a close reading of Antonio Gramsci's influential Prison notebooks, in part as a response to Louis Althusser's and Perry Anderson's critiques and more generally to dwell on the meaning of Gramsci's thought on Marxism and philosophy. The methodology of the analysis is outlined in initial chapters, which include a detailed examination of the literary style of the Prison notebooks. Gramsci's attitudes towards modernity, his political concepts, and the critical treatment of his theories of hegemony are analyzed at length. The volume concludes with analysis of Gramsci's notion of absolute historicism and its reception, with a concluding chapter on his idea of humanism. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)