Guglielmo Ferrero

Italian historian, journalist and novelist

Guglielmo Ferrero (; 21 July 1871 — 3 August 1942) was an Italian historian, journalist and novelist, author of the Greatness and Decline of Rome (5 volumes, published after English translation 1907–1909). Ferrero devoted his writings to classical liberalism and he opposed any kind of dictatorship and unlimited government.

Born in Portici, near Naples, Ferrero studied law in Pisa, Bologna and Turin. Soon afterwards he married Gina Lombroso, a daughter of Cesare Lombroso, the criminologist and psychiatrist with whom he wrote The Female Offender, The Prostitute and The Normal Woman. In 1891 1894 Ferrero travelled extensively in Europe and in 1897 wrote The Young Europe, a book which had a strong influence over James Joyce. While studying the history of Rome Ferrero contributed to the literary magazine La Ronda based in Rome. Then he turned to political essays and novels (Between Two Worlds in 1913, Speeches to the Deaf in 1925 and The Two Truths in 1933 1939). When the fascist reign of Black Shirts forced liberal intellectuals to leave Italy in 1925, Ferrero refused and was placed under house arrest. In 1929 Ferrero accepted a professorship at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. His last works (Adventure, Bonaparte in Italy, The Reconstruction of Europe, The Principles of Power and The Two French Revolutions) were dedicated to the French Revolution and Napoleon. In 1935 his daughter Nina Ferrero married the Yugoslavian diplomat Bogdan Raditsa. Ferrero was invited to the White House in 1908 by Theodore Roosevelt, who had read The Greatness and Decline of Rome. He gave lectures in the northeast of the USA which were collected and published in 1909 as Characters and Events of Roman History. He died in 1942 at the Mont Pèlerin, Switzerland.

Roma Antica, 3 vols., Firenze: Le Monnier, 1921–22, with Corrado Barbagallo.

Les lois psychologiques du symbolisme, Paris, Félix Alcan, 1895. Published under the name of "Guillaume Ferrero".