ABSTRACT
The new Prime Minister was Giolitti, now seventy-eight years old. Most liberals, whether their past was neutralist or interventionist, Giolittian or anti-Giolittian, rallied behind him with satisfaction and relief. Wartime controversies had lost much of their sharpness. By now the middle class and most of the elder politicians looked back to the pre-war years as a golden period of prosperity and stability. Giolitti, their presiding genius, would be the deus ex machina who would resolve the unfamiliar perplexities of the post-war world.
