Preparare una "sana e vigile" opinione pubblica: la collaborazione di Luigi Einaudi al "Corriere della Sera"

This paper analyses Luigi Einaudi’s collaboration to the Corriere della Sera, by far the most influential and widely read Italian newspaper in the first decades of the XX century, interpreting it an ambitious and passionate attempt to broaden the consensus among the public opinion on the principles of free market and competition. The first section focuses on Einaudi’s view on the key role of the newspaper in transmitting ideas and programmes and in influencing public opinion. Further sections analyse Einaudi’s articles before and during World War I. A final section examines his post-war pieces, in which he was able to devise a national “reconstruction programme” based on fiscal restraint, monetary stability and the defence of market economy