With this contribution, we aim to investigate the thought of Lamberto Borghi to show how, in his works, he emphasises a strong conviction that through education, it is possible to cultivate hope in building a future of peace.

Antonio Borghi (1907-2000) was one of Italy's most influential 20th-century pedagogists. He graduated in philosophy, specialised in German literature and taught for several years in various Italian high schools. In 1938, following the promulgation of the fascist racial laws, he was dismissed and left the country for the United States. Attending universities and intellectual circles, he came into close contact with leading figures on the international cultural scene, including Salvemini, Cassirer and Dewey. Returning to Italy as a full professor of Pedagogy at the University of Florence, he became one of the main disseminators of Dewey's thought. In his work, he establish a 'secular' paradigm of pedagogical investigation with a strong civil and political commitment.

With this study, we aim to investigate, in particular, the themes of peace, non-violence and anti-authoritarianism. These aspects, which we will highlight, are present in many of his most prominent works. This contribution will emphasise how the author tried to keep these values alive, even in his everyday life. 

Through unpublished correspondence kept, in part, at the INDIRE (National Institute for Documentation, Innovation and Educational Research) archive in Florence, we will try to introduce the reader to a more private side of the author, showing how his commitment to these values led him to maintain contacts and relations not only with the academic world but also with non-violent activist groups. We will particularly emphasise the author's relationship with anarchist and non-violent groups operating in Italy at that time, contributing to the commitment and dissemination of those values that he supported from a theoretical point of view.

The hermeneutic approach we will use for reading and interpreting the texts is historical-critical. We will read the facts and data emerging from the texts and documents in their historical context, trying, as far as possible, to authentically bring out the author's thought, his relationship with the intellectuals of the time and the issues he wanted to raise with his writings. In particular, we will use unpublished materials and writings preserved in the INDIRE (National Institute for Documentation, Innovation and Educational Research) archives.

With this contribution, we expect to highlight the importance Borghi reserved for education as a living source of hope for the possibility of building a better future for all. In particular, we expect to show how the importance of peace, non-violence and anti-authoritarianism were not only theoretical nuclei that he examined and linked to pedagogical thought but also something that he strove to live out on a daily basis. We expect to show how Borghi was not only a teacher but also a witness of these values in daily life, maintaining personal, as well as professional, contacts with different worlds that may seem contradictory. From the Marxist and secular world to the Catholic world, Borghi succeeded, through his dialectical criticism, in constructing a pedagogical synthesis that was not only abstract but which he strove to live, giving shape to that hope for the emancipation of women and men to which education can give form.

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