Title: Historicism and fascism in modern Italy /
Authors: Roberts, David D. 1943-
Publisher: University of Toronto Press,
Year: 2007
Subjects: Croce, Benedetto,; Gentile, Giovanni,; Croce, Benedetto,; Gentile, Giovanni,; Fascism Italy History; Historicism.; Fascisme Italie Histoire; Historicisme.; Italy Intellectual life; Italy History; Italie Vie intellectuelle; Italie Histoire
Abstract: "During the early decades of the twentieth century, Italy produced distinctive innovations in both the intellectual and political realms. On the one hand, Benedetto Croce (1866-1952) and Giovanni Gentile (1875-1944) spearheaded a radical rethinking of historicism and philosophical idealism that significantly reoriented Italian culture. On the other hand, the period witnessed the first rumblings of fascism. Assuming opposite sides, Gentile became the semi-official philosopher of fascism while Croce argued for a renewed liberalism based on 'absolute' historicism." "In Historicism and Fascism in Modern Italy, David D. Roberts uses the ideological conflict between Croce and Gentile as a basis for a wider discussion of the interplay between politics and ideas in Italy in the twentieth century. Roberts examines the connection between fascism and the modern Italian intellectual tradition, arguing that the relationship not only deepens our understanding of generic fascism and liberalism but also illuminates ongoing dangers and possibilities in the wider Western world. This set of twelve essays by one of the leading scholars in the field represents an authoritative view of the modern Italian intellectual tradition, its relationship with fascism, and its enduring implications for history, politics, and culture in Italy and beyond."--BOOK JACKET.
Contents: An indirect Italian angle on a few big historical questions -- Franchini's disillusionment : rereading the Intervista su Croce from abroad -- The revolt against Croce in post-Second World War Italian culture -- Croce in America : influence, misunderstanding, and neglect (with a supplement on the fortunes of Giovanni Gentile in the United States and Canada) -- Historicism, liberalism, fascism : rethinking the Croce-Gentile schism -- Maggi's Croce, Sasso's Gentile, and the riddles of twentieth-century Italian intellectual history -- How not to think about fascism and ideology, intellectual antecedents and historical meaning -- Croce, Crocean historicism, and contemporary history after fascism -- Crocean historicism and post-totalitarian thought -- What is living and what is dead? Ginzburg's microhistory, Croce's historicism, and the search for a postmodern historiography -- The stakes of misreading : Hayden White, Carlo Ginzberg, and the Crocean legacy -- Postmodernism and history : an unfinished agenda.