{"product_id":"books-the-kidnapping-of-edgardo-mortara-by-david-i-kertzer","title":"The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara","description":"\u003cb\u003eSoon to be a major motion picture from Steven Spielberg. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eA National Book Award Finalist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The extraordinary story of how the vatican's imprisonment of a six-year-old Jewish boy in 1858 helped to bring about the collapse of the popes' worldly power in Italy.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e 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 six-year-old 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. \u003cbr\u003e    With this terrifying scene, prize-winning 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, \u003ci\u003ethe Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara\u003c\/i\u003e reads as both a historical thriller and an authoritative analysis of how a single human tragedy changed the course of history.","brand":"World of Books ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53505378648337,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780679768173.jpg?v=1778095731","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/books-the-kidnapping-of-edgardo-mortara-by-david-i-kertzer","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}