The Vanished Library (1989) In 1989, Canfora published in English
The Vanished Library, which is about the
Library of Alexandria.
Togliatti e Stalin. Il PCI e la politica estera staliniana negli archivi di Mosca (1998) In 1998, Canfora published a rebuttal of Elena Aga Rossi and
Victor Zaslavsky's work,
Togliatti e Stalin. Il PCI e la politica estera staliniana negli archivi di Mosca, about criticism of
Palmiro Togliatti and the PCI and their relations with
Joseph Stalin and the
Soviet Union. Canfora described the book by Aga Rossi and Zaslavsky as "a vibrant pamphlet that exploits some documents, rhapsodically selected and mostly already known, with the very firm intention of demonstrating a single assumption: that the PCI's policy was always and totally subordinate to Stalin's directives." According to Canfora, what he described as the prejudicial anti-communism of the book reached, in his own words, an "exhilarating aspect" when the two authors accused the PCI of an insurrectionist drift. He stated that the party considered the possibility of reacting with arms only if the United States "had intervened to prevent the imminent political elections" of April 1948. Since he said the thesis of Aga Rossi and Zaslavsky was that "communism is evil", a PCI that would have tried to defend itself and not to be overwhelmed did nothing but practiced evil, and critically wrote: "Rarely had one fallen so low in a self-styled book of history." Regarding the Salerno Turn, Aga Rossi and Zaslavskij argued that the occupying Allied powers would have supported the
National Liberation Committee (CLN) government, which would have removed Badoglio from power, ignoring, according to Canfora, "how tenaciously the English government supported the King and Badoglio". By reconstructing the story and downsizing Togliatti's role, Canfora argued that Aga Rossi and Zaslavskij arrived at a result that they did not intend: the one for which Stalin was "gigantic in diplomatic ability, farsightedness, and moderation". Canfora's conclusion was that if the authors "had really intended to do the noble job of scholars of history", they would have tried to understand the reasons for Togliatti's oscillations on such a tormented political choice, writing that "if they hadn't chosen to reduce the characters that affair, either to mere tools or to evil geniuses, would perhaps have had the result that a historian should care most about: understanding."
''La democrazia. Storia di un'ideologia'' (2004) In 2004, Canfora published ''La democrazia. Storia di un'ideologia'', which is about the
history of democracy. == Political views ==