The Pope at War, David I. Kertzer
The Pope at War, David I. Kertzer
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The Pope at War
The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler

Bestseller

Author: David I. Kertzer

Narrator: Arthur Morey

Unabridged: 17 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/07/2022


Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The most important book ever written about the Catholic Church and its conduct during World War II.”—Daniel Silva

“Kertzer brings all of his usual detective and narrative skills to [The Pope at War] . . . the most comprehensive account of the Vatican’s relations to the Nazi and fascist regimes before and during the war.”—The Washington Post

“Tolstoyan.”—Cynthia Ozick

Based on newly opened Vatican archives, a groundbreaking, explosive, and riveting book about Pope Pius XII and his actions during World War II, including how he responded to the Holocaust, by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Pope and Mussolini

WINNER OF THE JULIA WARD HOWE AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD • A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

When Pope Pius XII died in 1958, his papers were sealed in the Vatican Secret Archives, leaving unanswered questions about what he knew and did during World War II. Those questions have only grown and festered, making Pius XII one of the most controversial popes in Church history, especially now as the Vatican prepares to canonize him.

In 2020, Pius XII’s archives were finally opened, and David I. Kertzer—widely recognized as one of the world’s leading Vatican scholars—has been mining this new material ever since, revealing how the pope came to set aside moral leadership in order to preserve his church’s power.

Based on thousands of never-before-seen documents not only from the Vatican, but from archives in Italy, Germany, France, Britain, and the United States, The Pope at War paints a new, dramatic portrait of what the pope did and did not do as war enveloped the continent and as the Nazis began their systematic mass murder of Europe’s Jews. The book clears away the myths and sheer falsehoods surrounding the pope’s actions from 1939 to 1945, showing why the pope repeatedly bent to the wills of Hitler and Mussolini.

Just as Kertzer’s Pulitzer Prize–winning The Pope and Mussolini became the definitive book on Pope Pius XI and the Fascist regime, The Pope at War is destined to become the most influential account of his successor, Pius XII, and his relations with Mussolini and Hitler. Kertzer shows why no full understanding of the course of World War II is complete without knowledge of the dramatic, behind-the-scenes role played by the pope. “This remarkably researched book is replete with revelations that deserve the adjective ‘explosive,’” says Kevin Madigan, Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard University. “The Pope at War is a masterpiece.”

Author Bio

David I. Kertzer is the author most recently of The Popes Against the Jews, which the New York Times hailed as "fascinating…[a] riveting piece of historical detective work" and Garry Wills praised as a "formidable scholarly achievement, staggeringly thorough." Kertzer was a finalist for the 1997 National Book Award for The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, which won the National Jewish Book Award. Writing in the New York Daily News, André Aciman said, "Kertzer is a brilliant analyst and knows how to weave the personal drama into the historical events." He is the Paul Dupee University Professor of Social Science at Brown University, where he is also a professor of anthropology and Italian studies.

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