The story of the origin of Vatican Radio provides a unique look at the history of World War II
The book will offer the first wide-ranging study on the history of Vatican Radio from its origins (1931) to the end of Pius 12's pontificate (1958) based on unpublished sources. The opening of the Secret Vatican Archives on the records regarding Pius 12 will shed light on the most controversial pontificate of the 20th century. Moreover, the recent rearrangement of the Vatican media provided the creation of a multimedia archive that is still in Fieri.
This research is an original point of view on the most relevant questions concerning these decades: the relation of the Catholic Church with the Fascist regimes and Western democracies; the attitude towards anti-Semitism and the Shoah in Europe, and in general towards the total war; the relationship of the Holy See with the new media in the mass society; the questions arisen in the after-war period such as the Christian Democratic Party in Italy, the new role of women; anti-communism and the competition for the consensus in the social and moral order in a secularized society.
By:
Raffaella Perin
Imprint: Fordham University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Weight: 549g
ISBN: 9781531507145
ISBN 10: 153150714X
Series: World War II: The Global, Human, and Ethical Dimension
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 16 April 2024
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of Abbreviations | ix Introduction | 1 1 The Popes and the Media: The Origins of Vatican Radio (1931-1939) | 9 2 Vatican Radio and the Outbreak of the War (1939-1940) | 33 3 Vatican Radio, National Socialism, and Communism | 68 4 Vatican Radio, Racism, Antisemitism, and the Shoah | 110 5 Toward the Axis Defeat: Vatican Radio, the Occupation of Rome, and the End of the War | 142 Epilogue: The 1950s | 177 Acknowledgments | 183 Notes | 185 Index | 253
Raffaella Perin is Associate Professor of History of Christianity at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan.
Reviews for The Popes on Air: The History of Vatican Radio from Its Origins to World War II
Perin's book sheds important new light on how the controversial Pope Pius XII and the Vatican dealt with the challenges posed by the Second World War and the Holocaust. Vatican radio was a potentially precious source of news in Axis-occupied Europe, and a potent public platform for the Pope, yet he worried about broadcasts that might antagonize the Nazis and Fascists. The Popes on Air, for the first time, shows exactly how the Vatican made its way amidst these challenges.---David Kertzer, Pulitzer-prize-winning author of The Pope and Mussolini Perin's The Popes on Air: The History of Vatican Radio from Its Origins to World War II is a fascinating and historically nuanced study of Vatican Radio during WWII. The material in the book is largely based on archival research, some of which has only recently been made available to the public by the Vatican.---Melissa Dinsman. Assistant Professor of English at York College
