Note 370 — Chapter I · : SISMONDI AND THE ORIGINS OF THE CRITICAL SCHOOL

Sismondi was a native of Geneva. His family was originally Italian, but took refuge in France in the sixteenth century, and migrated to Geneva after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Here Sismondi was born in 1773. He is even better known for his two great works L’Histoire des Républiques italiennes and L’Histoire des Français than for his economic studies. He was a frequent guest of Mme. de Staël at the Château Coppet, and among the other visitors whom he met there was Robert Owen. He died in 1842.