Guglielmo Ferrero (1871-1942) was an Italian historian, journalist and novelist, author of the Greatness and Decline of Rome (5 volumes, published after English translation 1907-1909). Ferrero devoted his writings to classical liberalism and he opposed any kind of dictatorship and unlimited government. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature eighteen times in five years and twice for the Nobel Peace Prize. Ferrero was invited to the White House in 1908 by Theodore Roosevelt, who had read his books and essays. He gave lectures in the northeast of the USA which were collected and published in 1909 as Characters and Events of Roman History. The Ferrero's historical and political essay The Riddle of America was published on the magazine The Atlantic Monthly in November 1913. «Such is the riddle of America which for some time past has been steadily gaining upon the attention of Europe. To reach the answer we must know whether the too swift economic development of the New World wields a beneficent or an evil influence upon the higher activities of the mind, upon morals, upon science, art, and religion».