David Kertzer

David Kertzer
Kertzer, photographed in 2015
Born	David Israel Kertzer February 20, 1948 New York City, U.S.
Residence	Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
Citizenship	United States
Alma mater	Brown University, Brandeis University
Occupation	Professor, historian, author
Employer	Brown University
Notable work	The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara (1997); The Popes Against the Jews (2001); The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe (2014)
Awards	Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography (2015)
Website	www.davidkertzer.com

David Israel Kertzer (born February 20, 1948) is an American anthropologist, historian, and academic leader specializing in the political, demographic, and religious history of Italy. He is Paul Dupee, Jr. University Professor of Social Science, Professor of Anthropology, and Professor of Italian Studies at Brown University. His book The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe (2014)^[1] won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.

Career and writing

Kertzer graduated from Brown University in 1969. He received his PhD in 1974 from Brandeis University, went on to teach at Bowdoin College before joining the faculty of Brown University in 1992 as Professor of Anthropology and History. Sponsored by the U.S.-Italy Fulbright Commission, in 1978 he was Senior Lecturer at the University of Catania and in 2000 Chair at the University of Bologna. In 2001, he relinquished his post as Professor of History and was appointed Professor of Italian Studies. In 2005, he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. From July 1, 2006, to June 30, 2011, Kertzer served as Provost at Brown.^[2]

Kertzer is the author of numerous books and articles on politics and culture, European social history, anthropological demography, 19th-century Italian social history, contemporary Italian society and politics, and the history of Vatican relations with the Jews and the Italian state. His book, The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, was a finalist for the National Book Award in Nonfiction in 1997. His The Popes Against the Jews was published in 2001, subsequently described as "one of the most critically acclaimed and contentious books of its genre and generation".^[3] The book analyzes the relation between the development of the Catholic Church and the growth of Europan Anti-Semitism in the 19th and 20th century, arguing that the Vatican and several popes contributed actively in fertilizing the ideological ground that produced the Holocaust. The work produced intense discussion among scholars of European history and historians of the Catholic Church.

The follow-up work The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe (2014) examined documentary evidence from the Vatican archives, arguing that Pope Pius XI played a significant role in supporting the rise of Fascism and Benito Mussolini in Italy, but not Nazi Germany.^[4] The book won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in April 2015.^[5]

Awards

• Rome Prize for Modern Italian Studies, 2015-2016^[6]
• Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, 2015
• Elected Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005.
• Mark Lynton Prize for History, finalist 2002, The Popes Against the Jews.
• Fellowship, Rockefeller Foundation Study Center, Bellagio, Italy, May–June 2000.
• Fulbright Chair, University of Bologna, Spring 2000.
• American Academy of Rome, Department of Education Professor, Fall 1999.
• National Book Award for Nonfiction for 1997, finalist, for The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara. Also National Jewish Book Award for Jewish-Christian relations, 1997.
• National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 1995-1996.
• 1990 Marraro Prize (Society for Italian Historical Studies) for "the best work on Italian history" in 1989 for Family, Political Economy, and Demographic Change.
• Guggenheim Fellowship, 1986-1987.
• 1985 Marraro Prize (Society for Italian Historical Studies) for "the best work on Italian history" in 1984 for Family Life in Central Italy.
• Fellowship, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, 1982-1983.
• Fulbright Senior Lecturer, University of Catania, Italy, winter-spring 1978.
• Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellow, 1972-1973.
• Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude, Brown University, 1969.

Written works

• Comrades and Christians: Religion and Political Struggle in Communist Italy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980
• Family Life in Central Italy, 1880-1910: Sharecropping, Wage Labor and Coresidence. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1984.
• Ritual, Politics and Power. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.
• Family, Political Economy, and Demographic Change: The Transformation of Life in Casalecchio, Italy, 1861-1921 (with Dennis Hogan). Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989.
• Sacrificed for Honor: Italian Infant Abandonment and the Politics of Reproductive Control. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993
• Politics and Symbols: The Italian Communist Party and the Fall of Communism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.
• The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara. New York: Knopf, 1997.
• The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican’s Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism. New York: Knopf, 2001.
• Prisoner of the Vatican: The Pope’s Plot to Capture Italy from the New Italian State. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 2004.
• Amalia’s Tale: a Peasant’s Fight for Justice in 19th Century Italy. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 2008.
• The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe. New York: Random House, 2014.

References

1. http://www.davidkertzer.com/books/pope-and-mussolini
2. Kertzer CV
3. Ventresca, R. A. (2012). "Review Essay War without End: The Popes and the Jews between Polemic and History". Harvard Theological Review 105 (04): 466–490.
4. Ventresca, R. A. (2014). "The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe by David I. Kertzer (review).". The Catholic Historical Review 100 (3): 630–632.
5. Somaiya, Ravi (April 20, 2015). "2015 Pulitzer Winners: Charleston, S.C., Paper Wins Public Service Prize; New York Times Wins 3". The New York Times. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
6. "Presenting the 2015–2016 Rome Prize Winners". American Academy in Rome. Retrieved 24 May 2015.

External links

• David Kertzer