Political theory based on Marxist principles has been the object of growing interest in recent times. The shift of focus from the economic to the political implications of Marx's teaching has led American and British theorists to the thought of Antonio Gramsci, one of the founders of the Italian Communist party, especially to the Prison Notebooks, the best known of his writings. For a proper understanding of the Notebooks Adamson turns to Gramsci's political theory and practice during the decade preceding his arrest in 1926 and seeks to disentangle his changing conceptions of political organization and the effect on political education. A table in the article shows the shifts in Gramsci's politics prior to 1927.