Sunday, October 21, 2012

Pius XII - two new biographies

Readers may be interested in two new biographies of Pius XII.  

The Pope's Jews: the Vatican's secret plan to save the Jews from the Nazis by Thomas Gordon (Thomas Dunne Books) has been available since the beginning of this month.  The review in Publisher's Weekly seems rather tame and non-committal which cannot be said of the review on Kirkus Review.  



Soldier of Christ the Life of Pope Pius XII by Robert Ventresca (Harvard UP)  will be published in January 2013.  The information provided on HUP's website indicates that Ventresca's work places a far greater emphasis on the post-war years arguing that the Cold War and the confrontation with communism gives the definition of Pacelli's papacy.


Of the two books, Ventresca's seems to me to be the more balanced and reliable.

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