in which he emphasized the social factors on criminal behaviour, he was virulently attacked by Lombroso and his disciples. The work received a moderately positive response from the scientific community both in Italy and abroad. Lombroso, however, did not allow any criticism by rival scientists and his alleged scientific supremacy. He unleashed a smear campaign and scientific crusade against Colajanni while blocking access to academic journals to prevent Colajanni's replies. In his essay Per la razza maledetta (For the cursed race, published in 1898) Colajanni ridiculed the anthropometrical categories of the Lombrosian school and deconstructed their cultural stereotypes. He argued that the high rates of criminality in Southern Italy – the so-called evidence of Southern racial inferiority – could simply be explained by social conditions and levels of education. He opposed the notion of racial superiority as an ideological tool to legitimise dominance and exploitation, which would lead to the destruction of other races instead of its alleged progressive transformation. In a later work, Latini e anglo-sassoni: Razze superiori e razze inferiori (Latins and Anglo-Saxons. Inferior and superior races, published in 1903), he expanded his critique on the concept of superior and inferior civilisations to the Anglo-Saxon nations. Political activities In 1879 Colajanni had been appointed as a municipal councillor in Castrogiovanni. In 1882 he was a candidate in the general election in the constituency of Caltanissetta, and while not elected he obtained a significant following. Although poor health forced him to stay at Castrogiovanni, he continued to write political articles in periodicals of democratic orientation. In 1890 he was elected in the national Italian Chamber of Deputies in the district of Caltanissetta for the first time. He was re-elected in all subsequent parliaments until his death in September 1921. In Parliament he sat as a Republican and showed socialist tendencies, becoming one of the de facto leaders of the Republicans in Parliament. He sponsored initiatives such as the parliamentary inquiry on colonial adventure in Eritrea (1891) and the Banca Romana scandal (1892). He argued against the incipient colonial policy of the moderate Left. Anti-colonialism was one of his favourite themes. In his book Politica coloniale (Colonial policy), written in 1891, Colajanni rejected the colonial adventure in Eritrea. According to Colajanni, the poor agricultural conditions made the country inappropriate for impoverished southern Italian populace and completely inadequate to serve as a market for the emerging Italian industry. Colajanni played an