ABSTRACT
The greatest single obstacle to American political and cultural influence in post-liberation Italy was Catholic integralism. Under Guido Gonella's resourceful command, the Ministry of Public Instruction became a third impartant avenue for a Catholic Counter-Reformation in Italy. During the latter 1940s, Maria Badaloni and Gonella engineered an impressive series of reforms which redressed many of the classe magistrale's long-standing economic and juridical complaints. The Liberal Martino ministry of February to September, 1954 interrupted nearly a decade of continuous Christian Democratic possession of the post of educational minister. The dynamics of American-Italian cultural relations have changed profoundly since the Second World War. During the secondo dopoguerra—the late 1940s and the early 1950s—Italy was not ready for wide-scale progressive education. The Deweyian tradition in particular has served as a common point of reference in a lively dialogue between secular-progressive, Catholic and Marxist educators over the aims and means of democratic schooling.
