At the beginning of twentieth century William James was the best-known American philosopher. His work found a remarkable reception in France and also in Italy. This paper aims to show the different ways of reading James's pragmatism, his psychology and his philosophy of religion in both of these European countries. These two case studies are of great interest in order to understand not only the role played by James's philosophical interlocutors such as Bergson, Boutroux, Papini, Vailati, and Calderoni, but also the roots of James's philosophy in continental philosophy, especially in Renouvier. Although it was more problematic there was also great interest in James's philosophy of science. Vailati presents a good example of this, which can shed new light on James's thought in its relationship to modern understanding of scientific topics.