Luigi Albertini

Luigi Albertini (19 October 1871 – 29 December 1941) was an influential Italian newspaper editor, member of the Italian Parliament, and historian of the First World War. As editor of one of Italy's best-known newspapers, of Milan, he was a champion of liberalism. He was a vigorous opponent of socialism and clericalism, and of Giovanni Giolitti who was willing to compromise with those forces during his time as prime minister of Italy. Albertini's opposition to the Italian fascist regime forced the owners to fire him in 1925.

Albertini was an outspoken anti-fascist even though at one time, he had supported the National Fascist Party for opposing the Left. From 1914 to Benito Mussolini's March on Rome in 1922, he was a member of Parliament in the Italian Senate, where he was a key intellectual and moderating force.

Life Albertini was born in Ancona on 19 October 1871. After reading law at the University of Turin, he moved to London in 1894 where he was a foreign correspondent for La Stampa of Turin. While in London, he investigated labour conditions and studied the organization of The Times newspaper. In 1898, he joined the Milan newspaper as an editorial assistant and had just completed his three-volume seminal work on the origins of the First World War when he died on 29 December 1941 in Rome.

Legacy Albertini's three-volume, titled The Origins of the War of 1914, was his highest achievement and brought him world fame. He researched and wrote it with the assistance of Luciano Magrini, a former foreign correspondent who was skilled in German. From 1928 to 1940, Magrini interviewed many of the protagonists of the First World War. He obtained numerous documents that are reproduced in the work, which was published in Italian in 1942 and 1943.

The first biography of Luigi Albertini was authored in 1945 by his brother Alberto, which was published in Italian in 1945. Since 1965, Ottavio Barié, formerly of the political science facility at Rome's Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, has had access to Albertini's huge correspondence, which he has edited and published. He also researched and wrote a second biography, Luigi Albertini, which was published in Italian in 1972.