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Her beauty brought her fame, her seduction made her dangerous, and her vengeance made her deadly. An exotic dancer who captivated Belle Époque Paris, she was known as 'Mata Hari,' meaning "Eye of the Dawn" in Malay. Her performances, filled with tales of lust, jealousy, and passion, enthralled the public. However, during World War I, she was accused by the French of espionage for the Germans, using her allure to extract military secrets from influential men. Mata Hari remains a symbol of female betrayal, her life a thrilling blend of exotic dance and espionage. This book, the third in the “Last Words Series,” explores the life, death, and last words of Mata Hari, executed by the French for alleged espionage.
In the brutal fight that has raged in recent years over the reputation of Pope Pius XII_leader of the Catholic Church during World War II, the Holocaust, and the early years of the Cold War_the task of defending the Pope has fallen primarily to reviewers. These reviewers formulated a brilliant response to the attack on Pius, but their work was scattered in various newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals_making it nearly impossible for the average reader to gauge the results. In The Pius War, Weekly Standard's Joseph Bottum has joined with Rabbi David G. Dalin to gather a representative and powerful sample of these reviews, deliberately chosen from a wide range of publications. Together with a team of professors, historians, and other experts, the reviewers conclusively investigate the claims attacking Pius XII. The Pius War, and a detailed annotated bibliography that follows, will prove to be a definitive tool for scholars and students_destined to become a major resource for anyone interested in questions of Catholicism, the Holocaust, and World War II.
In February 1945, Israele Zolli, chief rabbi of Rome's ancient Jewish community, shocked his co-religionists in Italy and throughout the Jewish world by converting to Catholicism and taking as his baptismal name, Eugenio, to honor Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli) for what Zolli saw as his great humanitarianism toward the Jews during the Holocaust. Almost a half a century after his conversion, Zolli still evokes anger and embarrassment in Italy's Jewish community. This book is the first authoritative treatment of this astonishing story. What induced Zolli to embrace Catholicism will probably never be known. Nonetheless, by painstaking scholarly detective work, through interviews in Italy and e...
'Sisters of Salome' explores how four influential dancers embraced the persona of the femme fatale & transformed the misogynist image of a dangerously sexual woman into a form of personal liberation.
The book covers unusual and often surprising areas of horror film history: (1) The harrowingly tragic life of Dracula's leading lady, Helen Chandler, as intimately remembered by her sister-in-law. (2) John Barrymore's 1931 horror vehicles Svengali and The Mad Genius, and their rejection by the public. (3) The disastrous shooting of 1933's Murders in the Zoo, perhaps the most racy of all Pre-Code horror films. (4) A candid interview with the son of legendary horror star Lionel Atwill. (5) The censorship battles of One More River, as waged by Frankenstein director James Whale. (6) The adventures (and misadventures) of Boris Karloff as a star at Warner Bros. (7) The stage and screen versions of...
An incisive account of how Mussolini pioneered populism in reaction to Hitler's rise--and thereby reinforced his role as a model for later authoritarian leaders On the tenth anniversary of his rise to power in 1932, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) seemed to many the "good dictator." He was the first totalitarian and the first fascist in modern Europe. But a year later Hitler's entrance onto the political stage signaled a German takeover of the fascist ideology. In this definitive account, eminent historian R.J.B. Bosworth charts Mussolini's leadership in reaction to Hitler. Bosworth shows how Italy's decline in ideological pre-eminence, as well as in military and diplomatic power, led Mussolini to pursue a more populist approach: angry and bellicose words at home, violent aggression abroad, and a more extreme emphasis on charisma. In his embittered efforts to bolster an increasingly hollow and ruthless regime, it was Mussolini, rather than Hitler, who offered the model for all subsequent authoritarians.
A celebration of the art, architecture, and timeless human passion of the Eternal City, Rome Is Love Spelled Backward explores Rome's best-known treasures, often revealing secrets overlooked in conventional guidebooks. With the ancient play on "Roma" and "Amor"—ROMAMOR—Testa invites readers to experience the world's long love affair with one of its most beautiful cities.
Bernard-Lazare (1865-1903) was a French Jewish writer and a prime mover in the Dreyfus Affair. After being involved in the Symbolist and anarchist movements, he took up the cause of Dreyfus in his brochure “Une erreur judiciaire” which anticipated Zola’s “J’accuse” by three years. He was an early analyst of antisemitism and in later years an ardent Zionist whose outspoken views provoked much controversy. The Dreyfus Affair lies at the center of this book as it was the turning-point in Bernard-Lazare’s life. The first part of the book traces Bernard-Lazare’s early career: his devotion to Mallarmé and defense of the Symbolist aesthetic as a philosophy of freedom; his adoption ...
Susan Zuccotti narrates the life and work of Père Marie-Benoît, a courageous French Capuchin priest who risked everything to hide Jews in France and Italy during the Holocaust. Who was this extraordinary priest and how did he become adept at hiding Jews, providing them with false papers, and helping them to elude their persecutors? From monasteries first in Marseille and later in Rome, Père Marie-Benoît worked with Jewish co-conspirators to build remarkably effective Jewish-Christian rescue networks. Acting independently without Vatican support but with help from some priests, nuns, and local citizens, he and his friends persisted in their clandestine work until the Allies liberated Rome...