A Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2022

In 1935, Fascist Italy invaded the sovereign state of Ethiopia--a war of conquest that triggered a chain of events culminating in the Second World War. In this stunning and highly original tale of two Churches, historian Ian Campbell brings a whole new perspective to the story, revealing that bishops of the Italian Catholic Church facilitated the invasion by sanctifying it as a crusade against the world's second-oldest national Church. Cardinals and archbishops rallied the support of Catholic Italy for Il Duce's invading armies by denouncing Ethiopian Christians as heretics and schismatics, and announcing that the onslaught was an assignment from God.

Campbell marshalls evidence from three decades of research to expose the martyrdom of thousands of clergy of the venerable Ethiopian Church, the burning and looting of hundreds of Ethiopia's ancient monasteries and churches, and the instigation and arming of a jihad against Ethiopian Christendom, the likes of which had not been seen since the Middle Ages.

Finally, Holy War traces how, after Italy's surrender to the Allies, the horrors of this pogrom were swept under the carpet of history, and the leading culprits put on the road to sainthood.

About the Author
Ian Campbell is an independent scholar and international consultant. He has written several books on the Italian occupation of Ethiopia, including 'The Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy's National Shame', also published by Hurst. It was a 'Financial Times' History Book of the Year (2017), and has been published in Italian translation.

Reviews

'Three cheers for Holy War [which] has turned the caring Italian Army myth upside down and inside out in what is the perfect antidote to Louis de Bernieres' Captain Corelli's Mandolin. [...] Holy War is the 'go for' book if you want to learn as much as you need to know about an invasion that helped shape the rest of the 1930s, a paving stone towards World War in 1939.'

-- ColdType



Book Information
ISBN 9781787384774
Author Ian Campbell
Format Hardback
Page Count 336
Imprint C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd
Publisher C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd