The Kidnapping Of Edgardo Mortara,New

Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture From Steven Spielberg.A National Book Award Finalistthe Extraordinary Story Of How The Vatican'S Imprisonment Of A Sixyearold Jewish Boy In 1858 Helped To Bring About The Collapse Of The Popes' Worldly Power In Italy.Bologna: Nightfall, June 1858. A Knock Sounds At The Door Of The Jewish Merchant Momolo Mortara. Two Officers Of The Inquisition Bust Inside And Seize Mortara'S Sixyearold Son, Edgardo. As The Boy Is Wrenched From His Father'S Arms, His Mother Collapses. The Reason For His Abduction: The Boy Had Been Secretly 'Baptized' By A Family Servant. According To Papal Law, The Child Is Therefore A Catholic Who Can Be Taken From His Family And Delivered To A Special Monastery Where His Conversion Will Be Completed.With This Terrifying Scene, Prizewinning Historian David I. Kertzer Begins The True Story Of How One Boy'S Kidnapping Became A Pivotal Event In The Collapse Of The Vatican As A Secular Power. The Book Evokes The Anguish Of A Modest Merchant'S Family, The Rhythms Of Daily Life In A Jewish Ghetto, And Also Explores, Through The Revolutionary Campaigns Of Mazzini And Garibaldi And Such Personages As Napoleon Iii, The Emergence Of Italy As A Modern National State. Moving And Informative, The Kidnapping Of Edgardo Mortara Reads As Both A Historical Thriller And An Authoritative Analysis Of How A Single Human Tragedy Changed The Course Of History.