This book examines the ideas of two radical heroes of adult education: Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) and Paulo Freire (1921-1997). The book is organized into six chapters. Chapter 1 introduces both men and their influences on adult education. Chapter 2 examines Gramsci's educative concept of politics, focusing on his concepts of hegemony and the intellectuals. Chapter 3 explores Freire's concept of education as political and the transformative role of adult education in liberating the oppressed. Chapter 4 looks at the points of contact and divergence of Gramsci's and Freire's ideas. Chapter 5 examines the references to Gramsci and Freire in the adult education literature and evaluates the linkage of their ideas in the context of a consideration of Gramsci's and Freire's status as radical heroes. Chapter 6 reviews the state of their ideas in adult education thus far and looks more closely at an account by one adult educator of her work with a social movement: Gelsa Knijinik's teaching and research in ethnomathematics with the landless people's movement in Brazil. (Contains 290 references.) (KC)