FERRERO, GUGLIELMO ), Italian journalist and author, was born at Portici, near Naples on July 31, 1871. At an early age he joined the staff of the Radical semi-republican Secolo of Milan. He travelled abroad considerably, and made a reputation by his books L'Europa giovane (1897) and Il Mili tarismo (1898; Engl. tr., 1902). Later he studied Roman history, and in 1902 published his Grandezza e decadenza di Roma, which established his fame as historian among the general public rather than among scholars. In politics a Radical Democrat, on the out break of the World War he was an ardent supporter of the Allied cause, which he identified with that of democracy, and advocated Italian intervention. After the war he published numerous articles and several books in Italy and abroad, inspired by forebodings of imminent catastrophe for Italy and the world. Among these is Da Fiume a Roma (1923), also published in English under the title Four Years of Fascism