In 1970, the first edition of a large anthology of texts by Gramsci, prepared and translated by Sacristán, appeared in Mexico. In the elaboration of this volume, Sacristán wrote an extensive introduction in the form of a socio-biographical study which, for reasons of a different nature, was interrupted in the account of the circumstances that led to the arrest of Gramsci and his entry into prison in 1926. this edition we offer that writing then unpublished and subsequently lost for many years.

Much more than the simple presentation of the biographical thread, the text composes an interpretation about the relationship between the activity and the Gramscian ideology that revolves around two concepts to which Gramsci himself frequently recurs in his writings: that of order and the time

In "The Order and Time" are exposed the personal elements and historical context that most influenced the development of one of the most audacious and original thoughts of the twentieth century. The beginnings of his political militancy, the reception of the 1917 events in Russia, the discussions within the III International, his relationship with the "L'Ordine Nuovo" group, the foundation of the PCI, the struggle against the abuses of Mussolini's fascism, etc. All these events are knotted around the figure of Gramsci, overlapping with his more familiar experiences.