Federico Chabod (1901-1960) was one of Italy's best-known historians, noted for his study of Italian history in a European context. This is the first English translation of his most important book. Although he carried out his extensive archival research for this work from 1936 until 1943, the fall of fascism and Chabod's active participation in the "It is a most impressive and interesting work.... It is far more than a diplomatic history.... Chabod has produced a kind of total history that is a monument of scholarship, splendidly organized."