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The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara
Out of seemingly small events are sometimes born great historical moments. The case of young Edgardo Mortara is one. In 1858 the 6-year-old Jewish boy was taken from his parents' home in Bologna, Italy, by agents of the Papal inquisition The year before, seriously ill, Edgardo had been secretly baptized, by the Mortaras' Catholic servant (or so she claimed); it was against the law for baptized Christians to be raised by Jews, and so, in the eyes of the Church, the kidnapping was only just. Secular Italians did not agree, and thus was set in motion a series of reforms that ended the Church's temporal power in Italy and forged the creation of a liberal, near-democratic state. For his part, young Edgardo became a priest and lived in a Belgian abbey until 1940--just before the invading Germans began to deport and execute all those tainted with Jewish blood. David Kertzer has shaped a remarkable narrative from almost forgotten events..
Price: $6.80
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Prisoner of the Vatican: The Popes, the Kings, and Garibaldi's Rebels in the Struggle to Rule Modern Italy
Praise for David Kertzer and Prisoner of the Vatican: "Kertzer once again proves himself a truly compelling historian." -- André Aciman "Prisoner of the Vatican reads like exciting fiction. And it has astounding contemporary relevance." -- Alfred Uhry "Kertzer's careful scholarship and lucid writing make the human character of this religious institution quite clear." -- James Carroll "Fascinating." -- Entertainment Weekly "Lively . . . filled with telling anecdotes and colorful descriptions of the various characters involved in the struggle." -- America, the National Catholic Weekly "Riveting and fast-paced . . . history writing at its best." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review "[A] rousing tale . . . from a masterful, controversial scholar." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review "A chilling and timely warning of what happens when religious power becomes synonymous with political power. If you love Italy, if you love Rome, this book is essential reading." -- John Guare "As magically spellbinding as it is enlightening, replete with colorful characters and complex international and ecclesiastical politics and intrigue. Kertzer is a national treasure and his latest book another masterpiece." -- Kevin Madigan, associate professor, Harvard Divinity School "This book is a gift to everyone who welcomes the emergence of buried history, and a boon to anyone who has ever wondered about the origins of the wonderful, tenuously unified place called modern Italy." -- Tracy Kidder David Kertzer's absorbing history presents an astonishing account of the birth of modern Italy and the clandestine politics behind the Vatican's last stand in the battle between church and the newly created Italian state. Drawing on a wealth of secret documents long buried in the Vatican archives, Kertzer reveals a fascinating story of outrageous accusations, mutual denunciations, raucous demonstrations, and secret dealings. When Italy's armies seized the Holy City and claimed it for the Italian capital, Pope Pius IX, outraged, retreated to the Vatican and declared himself a prisoner, calling on foreign powers to force the Italians out of Rome. The action set in motion decades of political intrigues that hinged on such fascinating characters as Garibaldi, King Viktor Emmanuel, Napoleon III, and Chancellor Bismarck. No one who reads this eye-opening book will ever think of Italy, or the Vatican, in quite the same way again. "A gripping account of this little-known story." -- Washington Post "A suspenseful and even captivating read . . . Kertzer illuminates one of history's darker corners." -- Providence Journal "Extraordinary . . . Kertzer describes intrigue, spying, disinformation, and public relations campaigns worthy of any contemporary spy novel." -- Seattle Times David I. Kertzer is author of several illuminating works of history, including The Popes Against the Jews and The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, a National Book Award finalist. A professor of anthropology and Italian studies at Brown University, he lives in Providence, Rhode Island..
Price: $6.27
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The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican's Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism
The Vatican's 1998 report "We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah" purportedly exonerated the Church of complicity in the Holocaust In The Popes Against the Jews, David I. Kertzer argues that the report is "not the product of a Church that wants to confront its history." Kertzer's book refutes the Church's thesis that the Holocaust grew out of "an anti-Judaism that was essentially more sociological and political than religious." In fact, Kertzer asserts, those dimensions of European anti-Semitism developed "in no small part due to the efforts of the Roman Catholic Church itself." The racial laws of fascist Italy and the Nuremberg Laws of 1930s Germany, for example, were directly modeled on the Church's own rules governing treatment of Jews: until the collapse of the Papal States in the late 19th century, Jews living in these territories were forced to wear yellow badges and live in ghettos. Kertzer's arguments make for compelling reading because they're presented in story form, based on the actions of the popes themselves. Access to long-sealed Church archives allowed Kertzer to reconstruct some of the most shocking, secret conversations that occurred in the Vatican in the decades leading up to World War II. --Michael Joseph Gross.
Price: $8.82
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Amalia's Tale: A Poor Peasant, an Ambitious Attorney, and a Fight for Justice
This quintessential David-and-Goliath saga tells the story of a wholly unexpected triumph of the poor against the rich and of a crusading city attorney who fought on behalf of an impoverished peasant. Amalia Bagnacavalli, an illiterate young peasant from the mountains near Bologna, is forced by poverty to take in a child from the city's foundling home to wet-nurse. When Amalia contracts syphilis from the sickly and malformed baby given to her, the city fathers callously dismiss her pleas for treatment and restitution. Bewildered and frightened, she seeks out Augusto Barbieri, an ambitious attorney looking to make a name for himself. He takes up Amalia's cause, fighting the case for years through the Italian courts before winning an unprecedented and stunning victory for his by now broken client. The unforgettable story of a landmark struggle for basic human rights, Amalia's Tale is the moving drama of a rural woman whose life was ruined and the man from the city who would not stop -- or so it seemed -- until he had seen justice done..
Price: $6.50
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Census and Identity: The Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Language in National Censuses (New Perspectives on Anthropological and Social Demography)
This study examines the ways that states have attempted to pigeon-hole the people within their boundaries into racial, ethnic, and language categories. These attempts, whether through American efforts to divide the U.S. population into mutually exclusive racial categories, or through the Soviet system of inscribing nationality categories on internal passports, have important implications not only for people's own identities and life chances, but for national political and social processes as well. The book reviews the history of these categorizing efforts by the state, offers a theoretical context for examining them, and illustrates the case with studies from a range of countries..
Price: $18.00
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Family Life in Early Modern Times, 1500-1789 (The History of the European Family, Volume 1)
This book inaugurates a major three-volume history of the family in Europe over the past five hundred years. In the series, eminent European and American social historians present a fresh reading of family life in Europe, explaining how families and family relations differed across Europe and how and why they changed over time. This volume deals with family life in Europe--and the institutional, economic, political, and cultural forces that transformed it--from the end of the Middle Ages to the French Revolution. Chapters consider, for example, the family's housing, diet, and domestic organization; the nature of family law; the impact of religious change; demographic factors such as disease and childhood mortality; relations between parents and children; and the effect of changing trends in marriage, divorce, and extended kin relationships. Using research techniques from the social sciences as well as new insights from cultural and gender history and the history of sexuality, the contributors present a vivid picture of family life in early modern times that will forever change our image of that era..
Price: $1.75
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Italian Politics: The Contested Transition (Italian Politics : a Review, Vol 11)
Another year of political drama unfolded in Italy in 1995, as the struggle to create a Second Republic, which had gathered momentum in the previous three years, bogged down. The Berlusconi government put in place by the first parliamentary elections held under the new process fell victim to interparty squabbling that seemed remarkably similar to discord in the reviled system of old. In the absence of a political majority, the country was ruled by a government of “technicians” who were neither members of parliament nor representatives of the parties.In this volume, experts examine political developments in Italy throughout 1995, explaining what did or did not change and shedding light on a series of dramatic conflicts. After an introduction assessing the political developments of the year, the discussions take up such issues as regional and local elections and national referenda, the evolution of the former Communist Party, the difficulties faced by Berlusconi in creating a stable party organization, the failure of the former Christian Democratic party and how the Church has responded to its fall, the successes and failures of the Dini government, attempts to reform Italy’s costly pension system, difficulties faced by Italy in entering the European Monetary Union, the crisis in the judiciary and tensions over the judicial handling of Tangentopoli, and the comeback of the national labor confederations. The volume contains two invaluable reference sections: a full chronology of the political events of the year and an appendix providing a wealth of statistical data on Italian election results, political parties, and the economy. .
Price: $17.95
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