The Pope Who Would Be King. The Exile of Pius IX and the Emergence of Modern Europe

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Pope and Mussolini tells the story of the bloody revolution that stripped the pope of political power and signaled the birth of modern Europe. "[David I.] Kertzer's brilliant treatment of the crisis in the papacy between 1846 and 1850 reads like a thriller. All the characters, from the poor of Rome to the king of Naples, stand out with a vividness that testifies to his mastery of prose."-Jonathan Steinberg, The New York Review of Books NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR AND THE SEATTLE TIMES Only two years after Pope Pius IX's election in 1846 had triggered great popular enthusiasm across Italy, the pope found himself a virtual prisoner in his own palace.
The revolutions that swept through Europe and shook Rome threatened to end the popes' thousand-year reign over the Papal States, if not the papacy itself. The resulting drama-with a colorful cast of characters, from Louis Napoleon and his rabble-rousing cousin Charles Bonaparte to Garibaldi, Tocqueville, and Metternich-was rife with treachery, tragedy, and international power politics. David Kertzer, one of the world's foremost experts on the history of Italy and the Vatican, brings this pivotal moment vividly to life.  Praise for The Pope Who Would Be King "Engaging, intelligent, and revealing .