Massimo L. Salvadori is professor emeritus at the University of Turin. He was visiting professor at Columbia and Harvard Universities. He is also a regular contributor to the Italian daily La Repubblica. Several of his books have been translated into English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese. Most recently, he published The Idea of Progress. Can we do without it? (Rome 2006) and Divided Italy. The tormented conscience of a nation (Rome 2007). With Laterza, amongst other works, he is the author of: The Socialist Opportunity in the Age of Globalisation (2001); The Left in Italian History (2001³); The Anxieties of the Omnipotent Man (2003);The Americans’ Europe. From the founding fathers to Roosevelt (2005); The Twentieth Century. An introduction (2010⁵); Democracies Without Democracy (2011³).