ABSTRACT
The Italian historical school of economics is a Ferrarian invention caused by political reasons but the uncritical acceptance of Ferrara's view which produces serious interpretative distortions. The analysis of the ideological barriers built up during the harsh debates of the period over 1870 explains the difficult reception of the GHS authors at the end of nineteenth century. Scientific interest in some representatives of the German Historical School (GHS) increases in Italy after World War II and in the last decade of the twentieth century, Schmoller and the general experience of the GHS underwent a thorough reconsideration. The predominance of pure economics became a formidable obstacle for the subsequent spread of the theories and methodological approaches of the GHS in the Italian social sciences, involves authors like Max Weber and A.Spiethoff. Besides, the economist's hostility that reinforces by a significant change in those components of Italian culture which at the end of nineteenth century favours the penetration of the GHS.
