Sismondi e la cultura storica del suo tempo

Abstract

Private letters, as well as introductions to the major historical works of the 1820s and '30s, show how Sismondi’s historiography might appear to be marginal for his times, but also that it was the product of a conscious choice. By means of his militant as well as scientific approach, Sismondi studied the masters of historiography belonging to the 18th and 19th centuries. Nonetheless, he kept faith with eccentric theories in the fields of political economy and constitutionalism. These theories made a great contribution towards distinguishing Sismondi’s historiography as an exception vis-à-vis the historiographical mainstream of those decades.