He was a vigorous opponent of socialism and clericalism, and of Giovanni Giolitti who was willing to compromise with those forces during his time as prime minister of Italy.

From 1914 to Benito Mussolini's March on Rome in 1922, he was a member of Parliament in the Italian Senate, where he was a key intellectual and moderating force.

In 1898, he joined the Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera as an editorial assistant,[2] working under Eugenio Torelli Viollier and then Domenico Oliva.

He wrote his memoirs,[3] and had just completed his three-volume seminal work on the origins of the First World War when he died on 29 December 1941 in Rome.

Since 1965, Ottavio Barié, formerly of the political science facility at Rome's Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, has had access to Albertini's huge correspondence, which he has edited and published.