In 1901 , after years of teaching in secondary schools , he was appointed as a professor in medieval and modern history at the University of Messina . While in Messina , he lost his wife , five children and his sister in the devastating 1908 Messina earthquake before his eyes , while hiding under an architrave of a window ; an experience that shaped his life . " I am a miserable wretch , without home or hearth , who has seen the happiness of eleven years destroyed in two minutes , " he wrote . He went on to teach history at the University of Pisa and in 1916 was appointed Professor of Modern History at the University of Florence . Over the years , he aligned with Luigi Einaudi and gradually developed a pragmatic inquiry and inductive analysis , which he called '' concretismo '' – a combination of secular values from the enlightenment , liberalism and socialism – in contrast to more philosophical thinkers like Benedetto Croce and Antonio Gramsci
1908 Messina earthquake
1908 Messina earthquake
Gaetano Salvemini