FERRERO, Guglielmo, Italian historian: b. near Naples, 1872. He is the son of a rail way engineer, and was educated in the law at Pisa and in belles-lettres at the University of Bologna. He collaborated with Lombroso in 'La donna delinquente' (1893) and with Bianchi and Sighele is author of 'Il mondo criminale gallant)) (1894), the preface of which is by Lombroso, whose daughter, Gina, Ferrero married. Ferrero's socialistic outbursts caused his banishment for a few months. In the late 90's he became well known as a publicist and in 1898 lectured on militarism at Milan. His fame as a historian is founded on 'Grandezza e decadenza di Roma' (1902-08; 'Greatness and Decline of Rome,' in English 1909). Here he shows his psychological training as well as his knowledge of economics. The work has been greatly overrated. Ferrero was unable to avoid the pitfalls into which his understanding and sympathy with Lombroso's theories led him and his work bears well nigh all the faults which may possibly be drawn from the great criminologist's wrong views and concep tion of the part that heredity plays in our social order. Ferrero's criticisms of the Greek
and Latin historians are likewise not well founded. His ultra-radical view of things led him to adopt a strange one-sided stand on many questions. And more than once his real or pretended ultra-modernism has led him astray. Ferrero was lecturer at the College de France in 1906, traveled in South America in 1907 and lectured in the United States the following year. Other works by him are 'Characters and Events of Roman History' (1908) ; (Fra i due mondi) (1913; English trans., 'Between Two Worlds') ; 'Ancient Rome and Modern America: A Comparative Study of Morals and Manners' (1914), a rather warped view of American life.