This first chapter introduces an analytical narrative of the process of institutionalization of Italian sociology, as an inquiry into the creation of infrastructures for practicing sociology as an academic discipline. The chapter questions existing disciplinary memory about the "rebirth" of Italian sociology after the Second World War and describes the typical features of early positivistic debates and the role of statistician Corrado Gini and his school during the Fascist regime. The two main theses framing this historical–sociological reconstruction are then advanced: post-war Italian sociology as a complex polycentric endeavor and the "colonization" of sociology by academic mores and processes after its full institutionalization in the mid-1960s.