Drawing upon the idealist philosophy of Benedetto Croce, Gobetti identified cultural change with a spiritual transformation that would unite public and private life.
Gramsci was the leading intellectual during the Biennio Rosso (1919–1920), a period of proletarian unrest in Turin that led to the factory occupations in September 1920.
Inspired by the workers' movement and Gramsci's argument that they constituted a new revolutionary subject, Gobetti gave up editing Energie Nove in order to rethink his commitments.
Whilst conservative liberals hoped to make temporary use of Mussolini's popularity in order to restore Parliament, Gobetti recognised the tyrannical orientation of fascism.
He died at age 24 in Neuilly-sur-Seine of a heart attack in February 1926, perhaps brought on by the injuries he had received after the severe beating by fascist Blackshirts.