When it comes to the study of Gramsci's work in Brazil, the Prison Notebooks still enjoy unsurpassed prominence in the eyes of researchers. The ways in which Gramsci relates to philosophical idealism, his first approximations to Leninist thought and his concerns about what the nature of a party of the proletariat should be have, already there, unavoidable formulations so that an understanding of the entirety of the Sardinian's thought can be made with a greater degree of rigour.

What the author of this book sets out to do is to shed light on an earlier, but no less important, phase of Gramsci's production: the so-called "political writings", in particular the period she delimits between 1911 and 1921. Many of the concepts that will become enshrined in the prison writings have their genesis there.

Marília Machado's book is a very valuable contribution to the studies and research that are still very much needed in our country on this very fruitful period in the life and thought of Antonio Gramsci. Leandro Galastri is a professor of Political Science at Unesp in Marília and the author of Gramsci, Marxism and Revisionism (2015).

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