Prolific twentieth-century Italian intellectual gives an account of his native southern Italy.

In The History of the Kingdom of Naples, Benedetto Croce returns to his beloved city of Naples, combining empathy with historical detachment as he provides an account of the region. He offers an eloquent explanation of longstanding contrasts within southern Italy, which boasts both a rich cultural life and a pervasive lethargy, and he addresses controversy and scrutiny directed at southern Italy since World War II. Through a careful study of the Kingdom of Naples, Croce reveals how philosophy and history both play a part in shaping an expanded sense of Italy, and he calls for an embrace of Italy’s ever-evolving progress in contemporary politics.

Among historical philosophers Croce ranks as the outstanding representative of the twentieth-century idealist school. German influences played the greatest part in his education, along with the philosophical tradition of his beloved city of Naples. A private scholar throughout his life as well as a leading statesman just before and immediately after the Fascist regime, he remained confident in his chosen role as the thinker who would “deprovincialize” Italian intellectual life and bring it into the mainstream of European thought. His work serves as a significant contribution to Italian formal history and thought, and this volume is considered to be one of the finest examples of his historiography.