Anyone interested in the entire sweep of political thought over the last hundred years will find in Norberto Bobbio's Ideological Profile of Twentieth-Century Italy a masterful, thought-provoking guide. Home to the largest communist party in a democratic society, Italy has been a unique place politically, one where Christian democrats, liberals, fascists, socialists, communists, and others have co-existed in sizable numbers. In this book, Bobbio, who himself played an outstanding role in the development of Italian civic culture, follows each of the major ideologies, explaining how they developed, describing the key actors, and considering the legacies they left to political culture. He wrote Ideological Profile in 1968 to explain from a personal perspective the history behind that decade's tumultuous politics. Bobbio's defense of democracy and critique of capitalism are among the themes that will particularly interest American readers of this updated edition, the first to appear in English.Beginning in the late nineteenth century with positivism and Marxism, Bobbio next presents the ideological currents that developed before the outbreak of the First World War: Catholic, socialist, irrational and anti-democratic thought, the reaction against positivism, and the thinking of Benedetto Croce. After discussing the impact of the war, the author turns to the revolutionary-reactionary polarization of the postwar period and the ideology of fascism. The final chapters consider Croce's opposition to fascism and the ideals of the resistance and conclude with the post-Second World War "Years of Involvement."Originally published in 1995.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Foreword to the Series

Foreword

Biographical Note

Preface

Translator's Note

Ch. 1 Positivism and Marxism 3

Ch. 2 Catholics and the Modern World 15

Ch. 3 The Forces of the Irrational 33

Ch. 4 The Antidemocrats 45

Ch. 5 The Two Socialisms 57

Ch. 6 Benedetto Croce 69

Ch. 7 The Lesson of Facts 81

Ch. 8 World War I: An Interlude 91

Ch. 9 Between Revolution and Reaction 103

Ch. 10 The Ideology of Fascism 122

Ch. 11 Croce in Opposition 133

Ch. 12 The Ideals of the Resistance 143

Ch. 13 The Years of Commitment 157

Ch. 14 Democracy on Trial 169

Ch. 15 Toward a New Republic? 187

Explanatory Notes 203

Bibliography 215

Index 229