Across debates within political and international theory similar demands have been made concerning the need to 'historicize' the theoretical and practical legacy of the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. Yet little attention has been hitherto granted to the substantive ontological and epistemological basis of such demands. By outlining a series of interpretative controversies and examining in detail the question of historicizing Gramsci, this article addresses some of the principal demands to historicize Gramsci before discerning any contemporary relevance. By tackling such demands within their own terms and according to their own stipulations an immanent critique is developed. This tactic of an immanent critique offers an approach to the history of ideas useful to the present, it locates ideas both in and beyond their context, and it also pushes one to consider what might be historically limited in a theoretical and practical translation of past ideas in relation to alternative conditions.