John Pollard, a leading historian of the papacy, explores the transformation of the Vatican into a major financial power and the part money played in the development of the modern papacy. Using hitherto unexplored sources, he sheds new light on tensions between the Vatican's engagement with capitalism and the Church's social teaching, and conflicts between the Vatican and the Allies during the Second World War and the early Cold War.

John Pollard's book surveys the relationship between Catholicism and the process of change in Italy from Unification to the present day. Central to the book is the complex set of relationships between traditional religion and the forces of change. In a broad sweep, Catholicism in Modern Italy looks at the cultural, social, political and economic aspects of the Catholic church and its relationship to the different experiences across Italy over this dramatic period of change and 'modernisation'.

John Pollard's book surveys the relationship between Catholicism and the process of change in Italy from Unification to the present day. Central to the book is the complex set of relationships between traditional religion and the forces of change. In a broad sweep, Catholicism in Modern Italy looks at the cultural, social, political and economic aspects of the Catholic church and its relationship to the different experiences across Italy over this dramatic period of change and 'modernisation'.

When a young American draft dodger from the Vietnam War disappears, his anxious parents seek the help of a Buffalo, New York, investigation company. The last coded postcard they received from their son indicated that he was hiding out in Afghanistan. The investigator photographs two bearded American young men camped in Kabul arguing with a better-dressed Englishman, but neither is the missing son. The trail goes cold. Thirty-five years later, a western Australian friend of the widowed mother uncovers the names of an Australian couple who were camped in Kabul at the time and might be able to...

The Papacy in the Age of Totalitarianism, 1914-1958 examines the most momentous years in papal history. Popes Benedict XV (1914-1922), Pius XI (1922-1939), and Pius XII (1939-1958) faced the challenges of two world wars and the Cold War, and threats posed by totalitarian dictatorships like Italian Fascism, German National Socialism, and Communism in Russia and China. The wars imposed enormous strains upon the unity of Catholics and the hostility of the totalitarian regimes to Catholicism lead to the Church facing persecution and martyrdom on a scale similar to that experienced under the Roman...

The Papacy in the Age of Totalitarianism, 1914-1958 examines the most momentous years in papal history. Popes Benedict XV (1914-1922), Pius XI (1922-1939), and Pius XII (1939-1958) faced the challenges of two world wars and the Cold War, and threats posed by totalitarian dictatorships like Italian Fascism, German National Socialism, and Communism in Russia and China. The wars imposed enormous strains upon the unity of Catholics and the hostility of the totalitarian regimes to Catholicism lead to the Church facing persecution and martyrdom on a scale similar to that experienced under the Roman...