Italian Economic Analyses of the First World War: "Historical Materialism" versus "Pure Economics"

The paper analyzes and compares the reflection on World War proposal by two essential economists in the history of Italian economic thought: Achille Loria and Maffeo Pantaleoni. Loria, in the name of an original interpretation of Marx's thought, Pantaleoni, in the name of an equally original use of marginalist logic, propose radically different analysis of the origins and of the economic and social consequences of the conflict. Even politically their reflections are poles apart: while rejecting Bolshevik communism Loria hopes in a radical transformation of the capitalism, able to erode unproductive income, which fuels the war; Pantaleoni considers the war as an opportunity to defeat once and for all the socialist and liberal movement, becoming the Italian economist closer to nationalism and fascism.