PhD Research

Gentile, Croce, fascism: my research will be looking at the writings of Giovanni Gentile, especially the letters between Gentile and Benedetto Croce, in detail. I propose to construct a commentary on the “Carteggio” complemented with extensive translated citations from the original. This strategy may be applied to letters between Gentile and his university professor and lifetime friend, Donato Jaia. The latter was one of the few students of the philosopher Bertrando Spaventa. I believe this effort is one that has been long overdue both for English-speaking historians as much as for Italians. We must re-read the work and life of Gentile with patience and insight, free from the blindness of liberal democratic cliché and prejudice.