The Pope and Mussolini (96 page)

Comrades and Christians: Religion and
Political Struggle in Communist Italy

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

D
AVID
I. K
ERTZER
is the Paul Dupee, Jr. University Professor of Social Science and professor of anthropology and Italian studies at Brown University, where he served as provost from 2006 to 2011. He is the author of ten previous books, including
The Popes Against the Jews
, which was a finalist for the Mark Lynton History Prize, and
The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara
, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He has twice been awarded the Marraro Prize from the Society for Italian Historical Studies for the best work on Italian history. He and his wife, Susan, live in Providence.

Also by David I. Kertzer

The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara

Bologna: nightfall, June 1858. A knock sounds at the door of the Jewish merchant Momolo Mortara. Two officers of the Inquisition bust inside and seize Mortara’s six-year-old son, Edgardo. As the boy is wrenched from his father’s arms, his mother collapses. The reason for his abduction: the boy had been secretly “baptized” by a family servant. According to papal law, the child is therefore a Catholic who can be taken from his family and delivered to a special monastery where his conversion will be completed.

With this terrifying scene, prize-winning historian David I. Kertzer begins the true story of how one boy’s kidnapping became a pivotal event in the collapse of the Vatican as a secular power. The book evokes the anguish of a modest merchant’s family, the rhythms of daily life in a Jewish ghetto, and also explores, through the revolutionary campaigns of Mazzini and Garibaldi and such personages as Napoleon III, the emergence of Italy as a modern, national state. Moving and informative,
The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara
reads as both a historical thriller and an authoritative analysis of how a single human tragedy changed the course of history.

The Popes Against the Jews

The Vatican’s Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism

In this meticulously researched, unflinching, and reasoned study, National Book Award finalist David I. Kertzer presents shocking revelations about the role played by the Vatican in the development of modern anti-Semitism. Working in long-sealed Vatican archives, Kertzer unearths startling evidence to undermine the Church’s argument that it played no direct role in the spread of modern anti-Semitism. In doing so, he challenges the Vatican’s official statement on the subject,
We Remember
. Kertzer tells an unsettling story that has stirred up controversy around the world and sheds a much-needed light on the past.

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