Piero Sraffa: his life, thought and cultural heritage

Piero Sraffa is one of the key intellectual protagonists of the 20th century. This book provides a comprehensive overview of Sraffa's life and his influence on politicians, economists and philosophers such as Antonio Gramsci, John Maynard Keynes and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Alessandro Roncaglia closely examines Sraffa's ideas and theoretical contributions, from the critique of Marshallian theory of the firm to his revival and reinterpretation of the classical approach. This book considers the explosive potential of Sraffa's celebrated work Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities; which provided both the solution to the problems left open by the classical theory of value and the provided the foundations for a critique of marginalist-neoclassical theory of capital and distribution.

Sraffa aimed at a complete turn-around of economic theory, from the dominant neoclassical-marginalist approach to a classical-Keynesian one, and discusses present trends of research within this latter approach, the full impact of which has not been understood by mainstream economics. This perceptive and in-depth account is a must-read for all interested in rediscovering the development of the 'Sraffian Revolution'.