In preparing an earlier work on the epistemology and methodology of the history of science (History of Science as Explanation, 1973), I found useful some of Benedetto Croce's ideas on the philosophy of history in general, when I applied them to the situation in the historiography of science. This got me interested in a deeper understanding and criticism of Croce, and in the pursuit of this new interest it was inevitable that I would come across Antonio Gramsci's Historical Materialism and the Philosophy of Benedetto Croce. I was so impressed by that volume that I felt the need for a more systematic study of Gramsci.

My concern with this seminal thinker was reinforced via another route. This additional connection was provided by what I had learned while working on a book dealing with logic and scientific method (Galileo and the Art of Reasoning, 1980). Because the theoretical lessons in this work of mine were grounded on a critical analysis of Galileo Galilei's Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems, my investigation forced me to face and to overcome a number of crucial issues in the theory and practice of textual interpretation, and it led to a number of conclusions in general scientific methodology. Thus, as I was beginning to discover Gramsci's Prison Notebooks by the other route, I was also beginning to feel that my epistemological and hermeneutical experience with a classic of past physical science would be helpful in the epistemological use and critical interpretation of this modern classic in social and political theory.