List of maps and illustrations
Cast of characters
List of Publications and Organizations
Prologue
PART ONE: THE POPE AND THE DICTATOR
1: A new Pope
2: The march on Rome
3: The fatal embrace
4: Born to command
5: Rising from the tomb
6: The dictatorship
7: Assassins, pederasts, and spies
8: The pact
PART TWO: ENEMIES IN COMMON
9: The savior
10: Eating an arthichoke
11: The return of the native son
12: Cardinal Pacelli hangs on
13: Mussolini is always right
14: The Protestant enemy and the Jews
15: Hitler, Mussolini, and the pope
16: Crossing the border
17: Enemies in common
18: Dreams of glory
PART THREE: MUSSOLINI, HITLER, AND THE JEWS
19: Attacking Hitler
20: Viva il Duce!
21: Hitler in Rome
22: A surprising mission
23: The secret deal
24: The racial laws
25: The final battle
26: Faith in the King
27: A convenient death
28: A dark cloud lifts
29: Heading toward disaster
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Notes
Index
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, 2015
David Kertzer is Paul Dupee University Professor of Social Science
at Brown University, where he is also professor of anthropology and
Italian studies. His Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara was a finalist
for the National Book Award in the U.S. in 1997, and he has twice
received the Marraro Prize from the Society for Italian Historical
Studies for the best work on Italian history. His 2001 book, The
Popes Against the Jews, a look at the Vatican's role
in the rise of modern anti-Semitism, has been published in several
languages. He is co-founder former co-editor of the Journal of
Modern Italian Studies. In 2005 Kertzer was elected a member of the
American Academy of
Arts and Sciences. From 2006 to 2011 he was the Provost of Brown
University.
`A book whose narrative strength is as impressive as its moral
subtlety.'
Lucy Hughes-Hallett, the guardian
`Kertzer enriches the familiar story with a wealth of detail.'
Piers Brendon, The Oldie
`Fast paced and well-written historical narrative.'
Irish Times
`If you haven't bought your copy of The Pope and Mussolini you are
missing out on a sterling piece of historical research that
establishes a new benchmark in the study of the papacy in the
twentieth century and its dealings with fascism in Italy.'
Paul on Pius
`this is a seedy, disturbing tale, passionately told by
Kertzer.'
Peter Stanford, The Sunday Times
`David Kertzer has an eye for a story, an ear for the right word,
and an instinct for human tragedy. They all come together in The
Pope and Mussolini to document, with meticulous scholarship and
novelistic flair, the complicity between Pius XI and the Fascist
leader in creating an unholy alliance between the Vatican and a
totalitarian government rooted in corruption and brutality. This is
a sophisticated blockbuster'
Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Revolutionary
Summer
`Carefully and eloquently advances the painful but necessary truth
of Vatican failure to meet its greatest moral test. This is history
for the sake of justice.'
James Carroll, National Book Award-winning author of Constantine's
Sword
`A riveting story from start to finish, full of startling,
documented detail, and nobody is better prepared to tell it than
David Kertzer.'
Jack Miles, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of God: A Biography
`Wholly deserving-even demanding-the adjectives 'groundbreaking,'
'courageous,' and 'captivating,' The Pope and Mussolini decisively
challenges the received narrative about Pius XI and the Fascist
leader. The relationship, in short, was one not of hostility but of
mutual dependence. David Kertzer's conclusions are unflinchingly
and conclusively proven, thanks to his profound and thorough
research, scholarly authority, and narrative panache. This is a
meticulously researched and crafted book, exquisitely written,
fresh, mesmerizing, and enlightening.'
Kevin Madigan, Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Harvard
University
`The Pope and Mussolini tells the story of two remarkable men,
Achille Ratti, Pope Pius XI, and Benito Mussolini, Duce of Fascism.
Both demanded absolute obedience. Those who knew the pope called
him 'a block of granite' and 'cold as marble.' The highest prelates
trembled in his presence. Mussolini, swollen with his success,
became 'a statue' who listened to no one. David Kertzer tells their
stories in counterpoint as they could never have been told
before.
The opening of the Vatican archives in 2006 and the discovery of a
vast archive of Mussolini's spies in the hierarchy of the Vatican
provide Kertzer staggering new evidence, and his wonderful
portraits of
everybody involved give this book the fascination of a great
novel.'
Jonathan Steinberg, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Modern
European History, University of Pennsylvania, and New York Times
bestselling author of Bismarck
`David Kertzer, who pored through the recently opened Vatican
secret files gives, us a ghastly history of the poisonous alliance
between a weakened Vatican and an ambitious Mussolini. The Pope's
blessing gave Il Duce the needed credibility to take Italy and the
Italian people where he wanted them to go. In exchange for that
approval, the Fascists provided the Church with its only perceived
bulwark against the forces of Communism and the modern age.
Enter
Hitler. I can imagine Machiavelli overseeing the manipulations on
both sides and saying either 'Well played' or 'You go too far' or
'Beware.' David Kertzer has written a harrowing portrait of a
ghastly union
whose only by-product was the nightmare of World War II.'
John Guare, award-winning playwright and author of Six Degrees of
Separation
`A thoroughly engrossing story with an ever-changing cast of
fascinating characters . . . Like a couple in a loveless marriage,
entered into for all the wrong reasons, Pius XI and Mussolini could
not get free of each other. Mussolini hated priests. Pius XI
swallowed his scruples about the Duce's growing megalomania. Each
reckoned that he had much to gain from the other. Beneath their
endless squabbling about precedence, their continual posturing,
Pius and
Mussolini undermined and ultimately squandered the happiness of the
millions who trusted them. Kertzer has written the definitive book
on this tragic history.'
Richard S. Levy, professor of history, the University of Illinois
at Chicago, and co-editor of Antisemitism: A History
`The author spares no toes in his crushing of the Church's
'comforting narrative' around its relationship with Mussolini's
Fascist regime. . . . Kertzer is unflinching and relentless in his
exposure of the Vatican's shocking actions. . . . Deeply troubling
revelations around Vatican collaboration with evil.'
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
`Kertzer unravels the relationship between two of twentieth-century
Europe's most important political figures and does so in an
accessible style that makes for a fast-paced must-read.'
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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