It is time, according to Feinstein, to challenge and destroy this mythology. His contribution is that of a cultural and intellectual historian, analyzing the work of many prominent Italian authors and philosophers throughout the centuries. The result is fascinating and thought provoking. Readers may never view Italy’s great medieval and Renaissance culture in quite the same way again. It is also maddeningly selective.

Feinstein constructs his argument around three interweaving principles. First, he declares, modern Italian culture is essentially the product of its Catholic heritage. Second, Catholic teachings have been, at least until the mid-twentieth century, profoundly antisemitic. Third, Mussolini appropriated Catholic rhetoric and teaching in a successful effort to win the support of the Italian people. As a result, Italians, already predisposed by their church, accepted antisemitic policies during the Fascist era openly and without questioning.

[…]

With regard to the second principle in his argument, Feinstein is on solider ground. There is no question that the Catholic Church in Italy during the last half of the nineteenth century and the first forty years of the twentieth was profoundly antisemitic. The author is right to point to numerous articles by Jesuit priests in La Civiltà Cattolica throughout this period that equated Jews with Freemasons, socialists, communists, and Bolsheviks; entertained notions of Jewish decadence, greed, and hatred for Christians; and castigated Jews for the rejection and death of Jesus, implying that any suffering and punishment they experienced was fully deserved. […]

Feinstein’s book gives us much to think about, […].

--Susan Zuccotti