Benedetto Croce, (born Feb. 25, 1866, Pescasseroli, Italy—died Nov. 20, 1952, Naples), Italian patriot, aesthetician, critic, and cultural historian. He founded La Critica, an influential journal of cultural criticism, in 1903 and was its editor until 1937. A passionate antifascist, he helped revive liberal institutions in the years following World War II, including the Liberal Party, which he led from 1943 to 1952. In 1947 he founded the Italian Institute for Historical Studies. His philosophical work has been influential in aesthetics and in studies of Giambattista Vico, which he helped to revive.
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