A book that is bound to attract much attention. Croce writes as a philosopher, and treats Italian history from 1871 to 1914 with as much detachment as though he were discussing the Trojan War. But reading between the lines we see that he thinks optimistically about the old liberalism and that he has no sympathy with "the psychological plutocracy that looks for what is gaudy and coarse." He is extremely severe with d'Annunzio and his influence on Italian life, and to the Fascist period he evidently dedicates the phrase that recent events in Italy do not belong to his history--and perhaps to no history at all.
