In his History of Italy from 1871 to 1915, published in 1928 during the Fascist period, Benedetto Croce traced the profile of the Italian politics and culture in the turn of the century, interweaving the analysis of the positivism’s crisis (with the so-called «rebirth of idealism») and that, now dramatic, of liberal institutions. For many reasons, History of Italy is not only a great history book, but also the proof of a real drama in the liberal conscience after the rise of fascism. The following paper takes into account the relationship between idealism and politics from 1902 to 1925, with particular regard to the philosophy of Croce and Gentile.