The essay reconstructs the debates of classical historiography concerning the First World War and specifically the controversies surrounding the interpretation of that crucial year that was 1917, considered a turning point within the conflict. In the first part the article focuses on the causes of war and how it was transposed by Italian historiography between Fascism and Republican Italy. In the second part, the study focuses on discussions about the year 1917 and particularly about the controversial Caporetto event. There are two historiographical interpretations that are opposed to each other in the evaluation of those events and their consequences in the subsequent history of Ital