Maria Montessori in Fascist Italy. An unsuccessful compromise

The author looks into the relationship between Maria Montessori, the Italian scholar who founded the pedagogical method associated with her name, and the Fascist regime. The essay examines unpublished documents that are interpreted also int he light of cultural and political events: 1925, with the manifestos of Giuseppe Gentile and Benedetto Croce - the former in favor of the regime, and the latter opposed to it - and 1931, with the oath imposed on university professors. The figure of Maria Montessori is situated on the watershed of these events and, in general, in her personal relations with Benito Mussolini, set against the backdrop of the European scene between the two wars.