The century of ideologies, the century of masses, the century of science and technology. And also the century of wars, the American century, the century of women, the century of nonviolence.

It is too early to coin a final definition of the twentieth century, but we can already chronicle its complex events.

The documents of this wide selection –in four volumes- offer to the reader a direct approach to the most significant moments and protagonists of the last century, so that he can easily measure his own interest and verify his own personal stands. 

The twentieth century, between 1919 and 1945, earned the not very much enviable definition of most destructive century in history. Such a primacy was built on the emergence and institution of totalitarisms in Europe (Fascism, Nazism and Communism), on the explosion of World War II and on its legacy of deaths and disruption, on the extermination of the Jews and the systematic elimination of political opposers carried out by Nazism and Stalinism.

Italywas amid tragic years and this volumes documents with special attention the phenomenon of fascism, from the consolidation of that regime till the ideological drift of racial laws; its dramatic running out into military defeat; the final subjugation to Nazi Germany of the Republic of Salò and the battle of Resistance against the Nazi-fascists.