The Pope and Mussolini
ISBN-10: 0804191298
ISBN-13: 9780804191296
Contributor: C. Peter Chen
Review Date: 10 Sep 2014
Full Title: The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe
In 1922, Benito Mussolini and Pius XI both came to power. In the next 17 years, the two leaders and the two countries strengthened each other, and in the late 1930s the core philosophies of the two nations began to create conflicts. David Kertzer's The Pope and Mussolini provided a study of these crucial 17 years during which Vatican City's soverignty was made concrete and Mussolini's Fascist state became established. He presented the interesting fact that while the two were vastly different in personality and philosophy, they were united in their shared need to secure their power bases in the early years, shared distrust of democracy, and shared distrust of communism. To debunk the over-simplified notion that the church allowed the rise of Fascism in European, the author also provided an excellent study of how the leaders of Vatican City (including Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII) balanced topics of morality (anti-Semitism among them) and the delicate relationship between the two countries. The book contained Vatican archives information that was released to the public only in 2002, thus I found that I was learning a great deal of new information.
I had reviewed this title in its audio book format. The reader Stefan Rudnicki did a great job, clearly reading the words with good pace.
Even as one who had already viewed the Vatican as a sovereign political entity as much as a religious organization, I still found The Pope and Mussolini to be astonishing. This was a very interesting book and I had enjoyed it.
Back to Main | Back to Book Reviews Index
Did you enjoy this article or find this article helpful? If so, please consider supporting us on Patreon. Even $1 per month will go a long way! Thank you. Share this article with your friends: Stay updated with WW2DB: |
Visitor Submitted Comments
All visitor submitted comments are opinions of those making the submissions and do not reflect views of WW2DB.
» Mussolini, Benito
» Pius XII
» Tacchi Venturi, Pietro
Affiliated Link:
» The Pope and Mussolini
- » 1,150 biographies
- » 337 events
- » 43,889 timeline entries
- » 1,241 ships
- » 349 aircraft models
- » 207 vehicle models
- » 372 weapon models
- » 123 historical documents
- » 259 facilities
- » 470 book reviews
- » 28,513 photos
- » 432 maps
Winston Churchill
29 Sep 2014 08:51:02 PM
So many pure lies have said about Pope Pius XII. It was nazi Europe. Hitler hated jews with a passion. The vatican need to relaese all records on Pope Pius XIIChrisOwner CEL Financial Services