It is with immense sadness and grief that we share the news of the death of our comrade, friend and long-standing member of the Historical Materialism Editorial Board Peter D. Thomas. Peter passed away due to a heart-attack on 11 October 2026, just after he had turned 53.
With an academic background in philosophy and literature from his studies in Australia, having obtained a BA and an MA from the University of Queensland, he came to Europe to pursue his doctoral research in 2000. His PhD at the University of Amsterdam was supervised by Marcel van der Linden and Michael R. Krätke, and was awarded in 2008 despite efforts by right-wing members of the University to derail it.
What started as a thesis that attempted an immanent critique of Perry Anderson’s and Louis Althusser’s respective readings of Gramsci – a thesis written under not always easy funding conditions – ended up as perhaps the most original contribution to Gramsci studies in the twenty-first century.
Combining the insights, philological and exegetical, of the Italian research on Gramsci that followed the publication of the critical edition of the Notebooks by Valentino Gerratana, with a non-dogmatic and non-sectarian reading of revolutionary Marxism, Peter produced a highly innovative reading of Gramsci. He understood Gramsci as a militant thinker of open questions of revolutionary practice, politically and intellectually, by both stressing the notion of the integral state and through an insistence on the radical novelty of Gramsci’s philosophy of praxis. In contrast to traditional readings of Gramsci as a theorist of hegemony as consent, and beyond denunciations of Gramsci’s historicism or reformism, Peter managed to bring to the fore the full experimental richness of Gramsci’s carceral research project, demonstrating how it confronted questions of revolutionary strategy. The Gramscian Moment: Philosophy, Hegemony and Marxism stressed Peter’s ability to combine philological fidelity to Gramsci’s text with a broader engagement with the history of political theory while maintaining a constant focus on the open strategic questions associated with the traditions of revolutionary Marxism.
Peter’s writings on Gramsci, on Marx and on Marxism would only make more evident the creative and insightful character of his work, in particular his insistence that hegemony referred to an experimental and pedagogical subaltern political practice aiming at emancipation as transformation. His entries in Das Historisch-kritische Wörterbuch des Marxismus and the Dizionario gramsciano, his articles on the question of organisation, on the modern prince, his highly original return to the notion of the passive revolution, his writings on the subaltern, subalternity and translatability, and his 2023 book on Radical Politics: On the Causes of Contemporary Emancipation, were superb attempts to use his reading of Gramsci as a way to confront contemporary radical politics.
But Peter was much more than simply a Gramsci specialist, he was one of the most original political theorists of his generation, combining deep knowledge of the history of political theories with an acute awareness of how they could be read in light of contemporary challenges. The scope of his work was broad and included not only Marxism but also the broader traditions of political philosophy and theory.
Combining scholarly brilliance with a respect and understanding for political militancy and its exigencies, he understood how the new anticapitalist radicalism of the beginning of the twenty-first century had to seriously engage with theory.
The originality and creativity of his thinking are evident in his writing on Althusser, on the falling rate of profit, on Lenin and dual power, in the book he co-authored with Juha Koivisto on communication and media research, but also in the volumes he co-edited on Althusser, plural temporalities, and Marx’s Grundrisse as laboratory. At the time of his untimely death, he was working on the final stages of a project funded by the Leverhulme Trust exploring the different contexts, conditions and consequences of the translation of hegemony in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Italian and German philosophical, social and political thought.
Peter had a distinctive style, evident not only in his writing but also in his conference presentations. It was complex, dialectical, and nuanced, managing to combine semantic density with exemplary clarity, philologically grounded, yet able to make novel connections.
During his research Peter spent time in Italy, in Germany, in Finland and in the Netherlands, including the time spent at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht, which led to an important co-edited volume on Althusser. At each stage, he seriously engaged with theoretical and political traditions but also with the local Marxist scene, building bonds that lasted. When he arrived at Brunel University in 2010, where he eventually becameProfessor and Head of Department, Peter left behind the precarious conditions that had marked a significant period of his early research, only to face the pressures of an increasingly commercialised UK academic system.
He was a marvellous teacher, supervisor, and mentor, gifted with the generosity generosity that so many, in the wake of his passing, readily acknowledge There are theorists who we remember primarily for their lectures and articles, but Peter is also remembered for the discussion after the lecture, after the presentation, the insights he would share, the email exchanges, the encouragement and the constructive criticism. With his wry sense of humour and genuine attentiveness to what his interlocutors had to say, he made every conversation a truly formative experience.
Peter was of course more than his research. He joined the Editorial Board of Historical Materialism during the preparation of his PhD thesis in the early 2000s and played a very important role both in the functioning of the journal as well as the London conferences, becoming one of the most recognisable faces of what was to become the most important international network of scholarly debate on Marxism. He also played a very central role in the Historical Materialism Book Series, soliciting manuscripts, helping authors improve their works, and turning them into one of the most important Marxist publishing project in the anglophone world.
For us on the Historical Materialism Editorial Board, he was both our comrade and friend, not only part of our monthly meetings and endless emails and threads on journal and conference issues, but also part of the conference team and of discussions, stories and laughs at the traditional drinks at the Marlborough Arms pub after the end of each London Conference. We are still struggling to comprehend why the brightest light among us has been snuffed out so early.
With Sara Farris and their two daughters, Mira and Nadia, aged 12 and 7, they created a beautiful family, and Peter was a wonderful loving and caring partner and father.
Death came unexpectedly, at a moment when he was more creative than ever, working on new projects, putting a premature and unjust end to a trajectory that had yet so much to offer. At the same time, his work so far has already had a significant impact and will continue to be studied and debated in the years to come.
For us the loss is great and the grief is deep. We have lost our comrade, and we already miss our friend. In the weeks and months to come we will honour his memory by returning to his work and inviting comrades to share their thoughts. Above all, we will continue to work in the manner we are sure he wanted us to work: unapologetically Marxist yet beyond any dogmatism and stubbornly insisting that good theory and comradely scholarly debate remain indispensable aspects of any attempt towards emancipatory politics today.
But right now, our thoughts and hearts are with Sara, Mira and Nadia, and Peter’s broader family.
To give a sense of Peter’s contribution, his articles in Historical Materialism can be accessed freely (for a limited period of time) by clicking on the links below:
“New Orders: Hegemony as a Method of Political Work”, Historical Materialism, 33.3 (2025) 3–21
https://brill.com/view/journals/hima/33/3/article-p3_1.xml?rskey=0dhtpR&result=7
(With Michael Krätke) “Antonio Gramsci’s Contribution to a Critical Economics”, Historical Materialism, 19.3 (2011)
https://brill.com/view/journals/hima/19/3/article-p63_3.xml?rskey=0dhtpR&result=9
“Catharsis”, Historical Materialism 17.3 (2009) 259–264
https://brill.com/view/journals/hima/17/3/article-p259_14.xml?rskey=0dhtpR&result=3
(With Giuseppe Tassone) “Editorial Introduction to Vittorio Morfino, ‘Causa sui or Wechselwirkung: Engels between Spinoza and Hegel’”, Historical Materialism, 16:1 (2008), pp. 3-8.
https://brill.com/view/journals/hima/16/1/article-p3_1.xml?rskey=0dhtpR&result=8
“Editorial Introduction to Roberto Finelli, ‘Abstraction versus Contradiction: Observations on Chris Arthur’s The New Dialectic and Marx’s Capital’, Historical Materialism, 15.2 (2007), 53–60
https://brill.com/view/journals/hima/15/2/article-p53_3.xml?rskey=0dhtpR&result=4
“Historicism, Absolute”, Historical Materialism 15.1 (2007) 249–256
https://brill.com/view/journals/hima/15/1/article-p249_13.xml?rskey=0dhtpR&result=10
“Presentation of English Translation Programme of the Das historisch-kritische Wörterbuch des Marxismus”, Historical Materialism, 13.1 (2005), 235–239.
https://brill.com/view/journals/hima/13/1/article-p235_12.xml?rskey=0dhtpR&result=1
(with Giuseppe Tassone), “Editorial Introduction to ‘Towards a Critique of the Category of Totalitarianism’ by Domenico Losurdo”, Historical. Materialism, 12.2 (2004)
“Philosophical Strategies: Althusser and Spinoza”, Historical Materialism, 10:3 (71–113)
https://brill.com/view/journals/hima/10/3/article-p71_3.xml?rskey=0dhtpR&result=2
Other work
Books
Revoluções, passiva e permanente, São Paulo: Editora Sundermann, 2025 (circa 80 000 words, in press).
Radical Politics: On the Causes of Contemporary Emancipation, New York: Oxford University Press, 2023, pp. 304.
Tempora multa. Il governo del tempo, Milan: Mimesis, 2013, pp. 305 (with Luca Basso, Stefano Bracaletti, Mauro Farnesi Camellone, Fabio Frosini, Augusto Illuminati, Nicola Marcucci, Vittorio Morfino, Luca Pinzolo and Massimiliano Tomba).
Mapping Communication and Media Research: Conjunctures, Institutions, Challenges, Tampere: Tampere University Press, 2010, pp. 218 (with Juha Koivisto).
The Gramscian Moment. Philosophy, Hegemony and Marxism, Leiden: Brill Academic Press, 2009 (Hardback); Chicago: Haymarket, 2011 (Paperback); Delhi: Aakar Books, 2013 (South Asian Edition), pp. 508. Turkish translation: Gramsci Çağı. Felsefe, Hegemonya ve Marksizm, Ankara: Dipnot, 2012. Spanish, Greek, Arabic and Mandarin translations in preparation. Awarded the Premio Internazionale Giuseppe Sormani of the Fondazione Istituto piemontese Antonio Gramsci for the best study on the thought of Antonio Gramsci published between 2007-2011 in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish.
Edited Volumes
The Government of Time: Theories of Plural Temporality in the Marxist Tradition, Leiden: Brill Academic Press, 2017, pp. 306 (with Vittorio Morfino).
In Marx’s Laboratory. Critical Interpretations of the Grundrisse, Leiden: Brill Academic Press, 2013, pp. 462 (with Riccardo Bellofiore and Guido Starosta).
Encountering Althusser. Politics and Materialism in Contemporary Radical Thought, New York: Bloomsbury, 2012, pp. 384 (with Katja Diefenbach, Sara R. Farris and Gal Kirn).
Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals (apart from Historical Materialism)
“Lenin’s Alternative: Dual Power and a Politics of Another Type”, Communis 1:1, 2025, pp 1-15.
“Il cittadino sive subalterno”, Rivista italiana di filosofia politica 1:1, 2021, pp. 175-192.
“After (Post) Hegemony”, Contemporary Political Theory 20:2, 2021, pp. 318-340.
“The Tasks of Translatability” International Gramsci Journal 3:4, 2020, pp. 5-30.
“Gramsci’s Revolutions: Passive and Permanent”, Modern Intellectual History 17:1, 2020, pp. 117-146. Spanish translation: La revolución pasiva. Una antología de estudios gramscianos, edited by Massimo Modonesi, Barcelona: Bellaterra, 2022, pp. 281-316.
“Refiguring the Subaltern”, Political Theory 46:6, 2018, pp. 861-884.
“Reverberations of The Prince: from ‘heroic fury’ to ‘living philology’”, Thesis Eleven 147, 2018, pp. 76-88.
“Critica dell’economia politica e critica della filosofia nei Quaderni del carcere”, International Gramsci Journal 3:1, 2018, pp. 69-84.
“The Modern Prince: Gramsci’s Reading of Machiavelli”, History of Political Thought 38:3, 2017, pp. 523-544.
“The Plural Temporalities of Hegemony”, Rethinking Marxism 29:2, 2017, pp. 281-302.
“A Revolution against Capital? Gramsci and the ‘visual angle’ of October 1917”, Gramsciana 3, 2016, pp. 35-49. Portuguese translation: “‘A virada de Moscou’: o diálogo entre Gramsci e os bolcheviques (1922-1923)”, Revista Outubro 30, 2018, pp. 173-189. Reprinted in Antonio Gramsci: Filologia e Política, edited by Alvaro Bianchi, Daniela Mussi e Sabrina Areco, Porto Alegre: Zouk, 2019.
“Cosa rimane dei subalterni alla luce dello ‘Stato integrale’?”, International Gramsci Journal 1:4, 2015, pp. 83-93.
“The Communist Hypothesis and the Question of Organization”, Theory and Event 16:4, 2013. Revised Portuguese translation: “A Hipótese Comunista e a Questão da Organização”, Crítica Marxista 45, 2017, pp. 35-62. French translation: “L’hypothèse communiste et la question de l’organisation”, Période, 2015. Partial Greek translation: “Η ιδέα του κομμουνισμού και το ζήτημα της οργάνωσης”, ΟΥΤΟΠΙΑ 100, 2012, pp. 117-134.
“Hegemony, Passive Revolution and the Modern Prince”, Thesis Eleven 117, 2013, pp. 20-39. Partial Turkish translation: “Gramsci’de Diyalektik Hegemonya”, Felsefelogos 48, 2013. Partial Greek translation: “Η διαλεκτική της ηγεμονίας”, τετράδια μαρξισμού 5, 2017, pp. 65-78.
“Il momento gramsciano: passato, presente, futuro”, Critica marxista 4/2012, pp. 1-6. Revised Turkish translation: “Gramsci Çağı: Dün, Bugün, Yarın”, Mülkiye Dergisi 37, 2013, pp. 159-170.
“From the ‘fall of the rate of profit’ in the Grundrisse to the cyclical development of the profit rate in Capital”, Science and Society 75:1, 2011, pp. 74-90 (with Geert Reuten). Finnish translation: “Voiton suhdeluvun lasku Grundrissesta Pääomaan. Perustava muutos Marxin tavassa hahmottaa kapitalistista tuotantotapaa”, MEGA-Marx. Johdatus uuteen Marxiin, edited by Juha Koivisto and Vesa Oittinen, Tampere: Vastapaino, 2011, pp. 137-166.
“Labour-power (Arbeitskraft)”, Krisis. Journal for Contemporary Philosophy, 2/2010, pp. 49-54.
“Gramsci and the Political”, Radical Philosophy 153, London, 2009, pp. 27-36. Revised French translation: “De l’Etat comme «évènement métaphysique» à l’hégémonie comme «fait philosophique»”, Contretemps 18, 2013. Revised Italian translation: “Gramsci e il primato della politica”, Critica Marxista, 2/2010, pp. 52-61. Spanish translation: “Gramsci y lo politico”, Jacobin América Latina, 27/3/2023.
“Althusser, Gramsci e la non contemporaneità del presente”, Critica Marxista 6/2006, pp. 71-9. Reprinted in Rileggere il Capitale. La lezione di Louis Althusser, Milan: Mimesis, 2009.
“Modernity as ‘passive revolution’: Gramsci and the Fundamental Concepts of Historical Materialism”, Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 17:2, 2006, pp. 61-78. Italian translation: “La modernità come rivoluzione passiva: Gramsci e i concetti fondamentali del materialismo storico”, Gramsci in Gran Bretagna, edited by Derek Boothman, Francesco Giasi and Giuseppe Vacca, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2015. Reprinted in Returns of Marxism, edited by Sara R. Farris, Chicago: Haymarket, 2016.
Chapters in Edited Books
“Against Ion’s Chain. Translatability in Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks”, Translation and Universality: Sites of Struggle, edited by Gavin Arnall and Katie Chenoweth, New York: Fordham University Press, 2025, pp. 221-247.
“Recovering Subalternity in the Humanities and Social Sciences”, The Social Sciences in the Looking Glass. Studies in the Production of Knowledge, edited by Didier Fassin and George Steinmetz, Durham: Duke University Press, 2023, pp. 310-327.
“Subalternidad, exclusión y ciudadanía”, Efecto Gramsci: de la renovación del marxismo al populismo contemporáneo, edited by Anxo Garrido and José Luis Villacañas, Madrid: Lengua de trapo, 2022, pp. 429-454.
“L’architectura lessicale della rivoluzione passiva”, Crisi e rivoluzione passive: Gramsci interprete del Novecento, edited by Giuseppe Cospito, Gianni Francioni and Fabio Frosini, Pavia-Como: Ibis, 2021, pp. 157-180.
“Toward the Modern Prince”, Gramsci in the World, edited by Roberto Dainotto and Fredric Jameson, Durham: Duke University Press, 2020, pp. 17-37. Portuguese translation: “Rumo ao Moderno Príncipe”, Revista Novos Rumos 54:2, 2017.
“La storia del comunismo come Organisationsfrage”, Comunismo necessario, edited by C17, Milan: Mimesis, 2020, pp. 275-289.
“We Good Subalterns”, Revisiting Gramsci’s Notebooks, edited by Francesca Antonini, Lorenzo Fusaro, Aaron Bernstein, and Robert Jackson, Leiden: Brill, 2019, pp. 177-194.
“Postegemonia: un passo avanti, due passi indietro?”, Egemonia e modernità, edited by Fabio Frosini and Francesco Giasi, Rome: Viella, 2019.
“Gramsci’s Plural Temporalities”, The Government of Time: Theories of Plural Temporality in the Marxist Tradition, edited by Vittorio Morfino and Peter D. Thomas, Leiden: Brill Academic Press, 2017, pp. 174-209. Italian translation: “Gramsci e le temporalità plurali”, Tempora multa: il governo del tempo, Milan: Mimesis, 2013, pp. 191-224.
“Introduction: Tempora multa”, The Government of Time: Theories of Plural Temporality in the Marxist Tradition, edited by Vittorio Morfino and Peter D. Thomas, Leiden: Brill Academic Press, 2017, pp. 1-19 (with Vittorio Morfino).
“Gramsci’s Machiavellian Metaphor. Restaging The Prince”, The Radical Machiavelli: Politics, Philosophy and Language, edited by Fabio Frosini, Filippo Del Lucchese and Vittorio Morfino, Leiden: Brill, 2015, pp. 440-455.
“Gramsci’s Marxism: the ‘Philosophy of Praxis’”, Antonio Gramsci, edited by Mark McNally, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, pp. 97-117.
“Uneven Developments, Combined: The First World War and Marxist Theories of Revolution”, Cataclysm 1914: The First World in the Making of Modern World Politics, edited by Alex Anievas, Leiden: Brill, 2015, pp. 280-301. Portuguese translation: “A Primeira Guerra Mundial e as teorias marxistas da revolução”, Revista Outubro 24, 2015, pp. 5-35. Partial Turkish translation: “Devrimler, Edilgin ve Sürekli”, Felsefelogos 44, 2012.
“Intellettuali ed egemonia: narrazioni di nazione-popolo”, Narrazioni egemoniche, edited by Mauro Pala, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2014, pp. 71-106.
“Crisis and the Rate of Profit in Marx’s Laboratory”, In Marx’s Laboratory. Critical Interpretations of the Grundrisse, Leiden: Brill Academic Press, 2013, pp. 311-328 (with Geert Reuten).
“Introduction”, In Marx’s Laboratory. Critical Interpretations of the Grundrisse, Leiden: Brill Academic Press, 2013, pp. 1-14 (with Guido Starosta and Riccardo Bellofiore).
“Althusser’s last encounter: Gramsci”, Encountering Althusser. Politics and Materialism in Contemporary Radical Thought, New York: Bloomsbury, 2012, pp. 137-151.
“Introduction: Encountering Althusser”, Encountering Althusser. Politics and Materialism in Contemporary Radical Thought, New York: Bloomsbury, 2012, pp. xiii-xxi (with Katja Diefenbach, Sara R. Farris and Gal Kirn).
“Gramsci and the Intellectuals”, Marxism and Intellectuals, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, pp. 68-85. Turkish translation: “Gramsci ve entelektüeller: modern prens karşısında pasif devrim”, Felsefelogos 32, 2007.
“Konjunktur des integralen Staates? Poulantzas’ Gramsci Lektüre”, Poulantzas lesen, edited by Lars Bretthauer, Alexander Gallas, John Kannankulam and Ingo Stützle, Hamburg: VSA Verlag, 2006, pp. 307-323. Revised Italian translation: “Vie democratiche al socialismo”, Pensare con Marx, ripensare Marx, Rome: Alegre, 2008. Revised French translation: “Voies démocratiques vers le socialisme. Le retour de la question stratégique”, Contretemps 8, 2010. English translation: “Conjunctures of the integral State? Poulantzas’s Reading of Gramsci”, Reading Poulantzas, London: Merlin, 2011. Greek translation: “Η συγcurία του ολοcληrωμένου crάτους: Η ανάγνωση του Gcrάmsi apό τον Πουλαντξά”, ΟΥΤΟΠΙΑ 130, 2019, pp. 97-115.
“Die Fastnachtszeit der Philosophie: il Marx della tesi di laurea”, Sulle tracce di un fantasma, Rome: Manifestolibri, 2005, pp. 133-144.
“Cultural Studies: Towards a Realist Intervention”, Critical Realism: The Difference it Makes, New York: Routledge, 2003, pp. 161-177 (with Gary MacLennan).
“The Student Movement Yet-to-Come”, The Point of Change: Marxism/Australia/History/Theory, edited by Carole Ferrier and Rebecca Pelan, Brisbane: Australian Studies Centre, 1998, pp. 187-200.
Entries in Reference Works
“Kohärenz”, Das historisch-kritische Wörterbuch des Marxismus 7/II, Berlin, InkriT, 2011, pp. 1096-1101.
“Coerenza/coerente”, “Filosofia speculativa”, “Filosofo e filosofo democratico”, “Fronte unico”, “Metafisica”, “Previsione” and “Storia a disegno”: entries in Dizionario gramsciano 1926 – 1937, edited by Guido Liguori and Pasquale Voza, Rome: Carocci, 2009.
“Katharsis”, Das historisch-kritische Wörterbuch des Marxismus 7/I, Berlin, InkriT, 2008, pp. 495-503. English translation: Historical Materialism 17:3, 2009, pp. 259-264.
“Immanenz”, Das historisch-kritische Wörterbuch des Marxismus 6/I, Berlin, InkriT, 2004, pp. 811-815. English translation: Historical Materialism 16:1, 2008, pp. 239-243.
“Historizismus, absoluter”, Das historisch-kritische Wörterbuch des Marxismus 6/I, Berlin, InkriT, 2004, pp. 411-422. English translation: Historical Materialism 15:1, 2007, pp. 249-256.
Book Reviews
“The Moor’s Italian Journeys” (Review of Cristina Corradi, La Storia dei marxismi in Italia), New Left Review II/58, 2009, pp. 119-132.
“Being Max Weber” (Review of Joachim Radkau, Max Weber: die Leidenschaft des Denkens), New Left Review II/41, 2006, pp. 147-158. Translated into Spanish.
“Overman and the Commune” (Review of Domenico Losurdo, Nietzsche, il ribelle aristocratico. Biografia intellettuale e bilancio critico and Jan Rehmann, Postmoderner Links-Nietzscheanismus), New Left Review II/31, 2005, pp. 137-144. Translated into Spanish.
Editorial Introductions and Prefaces
“Prefazione”, preface to Gianni Fresu, Questioni gramsciani. Dall’interpretazione alla trasformazione del mondo, Milan: Meltemi, 2024, pp. 4-9.
“I viaggi italiani del Moro”, preface to Cristina Corradi, La Storia dei marxismi in Italia (2nd edition), Rome: Manifestolibri, 2011, pp. 7-21.
Selected Translations
Mario Tronti, On the Autonomy of the Political, Viewpoint, 2020 (from the Italian, with Sara R. Farris and Andrew Anastasi).
Roberto Finelli, A Failed Parricide: Hegel and the Young Marx, Leiden: Brill Academic Press, 2016, pp. 282 (from the Italian, with Nicola Iannelli Popham).
Massimiliano Tomba, Marx’s Temporalities, Leiden: Brill Academic Press, 2012, pp. 206 (from the Italian, with Sara R. Farris).
Alain Badiou and Slavoj Zizek, Philosophy in the Present, Polity Press, 2009, pp. 80 (from the German, with Alberto Toscano).
Antonio Negri, Goodbye Mr Socialism, New York: Seven Stories Press, 2008, pp. 256 (from the Italian).
Initiation of English translation programme of Das historisch-kritische Wörterbuch des Marxismus (HKWM) in 2004. Establishment of editorial guidelines for English translation programme, translation of 10 articles, revision of 4 articles, and editorial responsibility for publication of 19 other HKWM articles in English between 2004-16.
