Abstract

The paper comes from the work accomplished for the National Edition of the "Storia della storiografia italiana nel secolo decimonono" by Benedetto Croce, and focuses on some aspects of Croce's analysis of the crisis of liberal civilization considered through the filter of the historiographical exercise. The numerous experiences documented by the author in this paper clearly and tangibly testify the unity of history with life, and demonstrate - in a more incisive way than theoretic dissertation - the educational function of history, its practical link with the present and its beneficial action for the future, through practical warnings useful to counteract the difficulties that the present itself imposes.