Keywords

• The development of contemporary historiography in Italy after World War II was a consequence of two different elements: a) the formation of documentary centre on the history of social and political movements in the modern and contemporary ages
• b) and the making of a generation of historians
• devoted to early modern history and involved in methodological and intellectual history in the social sciences. Giuliano Procacci was a typical representative of both these elements. His work as scientific director at Istituto Giangiacomo Feltrinelli in 1956-1962 was to widen his sphere of historical research. The organisation of Istituto Giangiacomo Feltrinelli as an international historical centre devoted to economic and social history
• under his scientific management
• marked the beginning of Contemporary History in Italian historiography