Professor David Kertzer's research ranges widely, including: Italian politics and history, anthropological demography, social organization, politics and symbols, political economy and family systems, age structuring, European historical demography and the history of Catholic Church-Jewish relations.

Kertzer's major interests include the anthropological study of politics; anthropological demography; and European social history. He is particularly interested in how political identities are created and in the role of religion in politics.

Current Research

Kertzer is currently working on a book on the relationship of the Vatican to the Italian Fascist regime during the Second World War.

2004-10: Principal investigator, "Explaining Very Low Fertility," National Institutes of Health ($798,000.).
2004-6: Principal investigator, "Explaining Very Low Fertility," National Science Foundation ($253,000.).

2002-4  Co-principal investigator, “Russia’s New Experiment in Power Sharing: Self-Determination, National Identity, and the First Russian Census,” Carnegie Corporation, $344,000.

1998-2001  Co-principal investigator, “Recreating National Identity in the States of the Former Soviet Union,” Mellon Foundation ($40,000); NCEEER ($60,000).

1996-98  Principal investigator, “The Lives of Abandoned Children,” National Science Foundation ($150,000.).

1995-96  National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers  ($30,000.).

1994  Principal investigator, "Conference on Anthropological Demography," Funded by NICHD ($31,398) and NIA ($5,000).

1990-91   Principal investigator, "Infant Abandonment in Nineteenth-Century Italy," NSF ($50,000.).

1986-1988   Principal investigator, "Coresidential Dynamics among Italian Sharecroppers," NSF ($110,000.).

1986-1987   Guggenheim Fellowship.

1984-1986   Principal investigator, "Longitudinal Perspectives on  Demographic Behavior,"  NICHD ($349,000.).

1982-1983   Principal investigator, continuation grant, "Household  Dynamics in Longitudinal Perspective," NICHD ($148,000.)

1982-1983   Grant to support fellowship at Center for Advanced Study, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

1980   Research grant, Council for International Exchange of Scholars, Catania, Italy.

1980   Summer Institute on Life-Span Human Development, Center for  Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford.

1979-1982   Principal investigator, "Household Dynamics in Longitudinal Perspective," NICHD, ($254,000.).

1975-1977   Principal investigator, "Social Change in an Urbanizing  Italian Parish," National Institute of Child Health and Human  Development, ($30,000.).

1975-76   Co-principal investigator, "Dynamics of Age Stratification:   The Latuka in Transition,"  Russell Sage Foundation.

1974   NIH postdoctoral Summer Institute in Population.  Carolina  Population Center, Chapel Hill.

The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler. New York: Random House, 2022. Italian, UK, German, Spanish and Chinese editions. One of the best books of 2022: The New Yorker.

The Pope Who Would be King: The Exile of Pius IX and the Emergence of Modern Europe. New York: Random House, 2018.  Italian edition, Garzanti.

The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe.  New York: Random House, 2014.  Italian edition Rizzoli (Il patto col diavolo: Mussolini e papa Pio XI, 2014); UK edition, Oxford University Press, 2014; Romanian Edition, Papa si Mussolini, Editura Rao, 2015; French edition, Le pape et Mussolini, Les Arenes, 2016.  German, Portuguese, Polish, Chinese, Czech, and Brazilian editions in press.  Winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, and the American Historical Association Marraro Prize for best book in Italian history.  A History Book Club main selection.

Amalia's Tale: A Poor Peasant, an Ambitious Attorney, and a Fight for Justice.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008.  Italian edition, La sfida di Amalia, Rizzoli, 2008; Brazilian edition A Historia de Amalia, Rocco, 2009,

Prisoner of the Vatican: The Popes' Plot to Capture Italy from the New Italian State. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. Italian edition Rizzoli (Prigioniero del Vaticano, 2005). A History Book Club selection. Chosen as one of the best books of 2004 by Publishers' Weekly.

The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican's Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism, 2001. New York: Knopf (paperback Vintage, 2002). A selection of Book of the Month Club; Quality Paperback book club; and Traditions (the Book of the Month Club's Jewish interest book club). Italian edition by Rizzoli (I papi contro gli ebrei, 2002); Brazilian edition by Rocco (O Vaticano e os Judeos: Os papas e a ascensão do anti-semitismo moderno, 2002); Spanish edition by Plaza Janés (Los papas contro los judíos, 2002); Dutch edition by Prometheus (In Gods Naam, 2002); British edition by Macmillan (The Unholy War, 2002); German edition by Propylaen Verlag (Die Päpste gegen die Juden. Der Vatikan und der moderne Antisemitismus, 2001); French version by Editions Robert Laffont (Le Vatican contre les juifs, 2003); Hungarian edition by Ulpius-Haz (A pápák a zsidók ellen, 2003); Polish edition by W.A.B. (Papieze a Zydzi: O roli Watykanu w rozwoju wspólczesnego antysemityzmu , 2005) . Finalist, Mark Lynton Prize for History 2002. Selected one of the "100 Best Books of the Year, 2002", Toronto Globe and Mail.

The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara. New York: Knopf, 1997. Paperback published by Vintage, 1998. Italian edition (Prigioniero del Papa Re) published by Rizzoli in 1996; British edition by Picador in 1997 (paperback will be by Papermac); French (Pie IX et l'enfant juif, Perrin, 2001); German (Die Entführung des Edgardo Mortara, Hanser, 1998); Brazilian (O Seqüestro de Edgardo Mortara, Rocco, 1998); Hebrew (Kinneret, 2000); Spanish (El secuestro de Edgardo Mortara, Plaza Janés, 2000). Finalist, National Book Award for nonfiction, 1997. Winner, National Jewish Book Award for Jewish-Christian relations, 1997. Selected one of the "Best Books of the Year, 1997", Publishers Weekly, Toronto Globe and Mail. "Edgardo Mine," a stage version of the book , written by Alfred Uhry, opened at Hartford Stage in October, 2002.

Politics and Symbols: The Italian Communist Party and the Fall of Communism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.

Sacrificed for Honor: Italian Infant Abandonment and the Politics of Reproductive Control. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993 (paper, 1994). Runner-up, 1995 Goode Award (book on family), American Sociological Association.

Family, Political Economy, and Demographic Change: The Transformation of Life in Casalecchio, Italy, 1861-1921 (with Dennis Hogan). Cloth and paper editions. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989. Italian edition (with Dennis Hogan and Massimo Marcolin) published as Famiglia, Economia, e Società. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1991. Winner 1990 Marraro Prize from the Society for Italian Historical Studies.

Ritual, Politics, and Power. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. Cloth and paper. Offered as an alternate selection by the History Book Club. Italian edition, Riti e simboli del potere, Laterza, 1989; Japanese edition, published by Keiso Shobo; 1990. Romanian edition, Ritual, Politica, si Putere, Editura Univers, 2002.  Polish edition, Rytual, Polityka, Wladza, Oficyna Wydawnicza Volumen, 2010; Chinese edition, published by Jangsu People's Publishing House, 2015 (with a new preface by the auithor).

Family Life in Central Italy, 1880-1910: Sharecropping, Wage Labor, and Coresidence. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1984. Completely revised and expanded version of Famiglia contadina, 1981. Winner of the 1984 Marraro Prize from the Society for Italian Historical Studies.

Famiglia Contadina e Urbanizzazione [Peasant Family and Urbanization]. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1981.

Comrades and Christians: Religion and Political Struggle in Communist Italy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980. Cloth and softcover editions. Italian translation with a new preface published as Cattolici e Comunisti. Milan: Franco Angeli, 1981. New English language edition published by Waveland Press, 1990.

--Pulitzer Prize for Biography, The Pope and Mussolini, 2015; also winner of the American Historical Association Marraro Prize for best book in Italian histrory.

--Elected Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005.
--Mark Lynton Prize for History, finalist 2002, The Popes Against the Jews .
--Fellowship, Rockefeller Foundation Study Center, Bellagio, Italy, May-June 2000.
--Fulbright Chair, University of Bologna, spring 2000.
--American Academy of Rome, Department of Education Professor, fall 1999.
--National Book Award for nonfiction for 1997, finalist, for The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara . Also National Jewish Book Award for Jewish-Christian relations, 1997.
--National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 1995-96.
--1990 Marraro Prize (Society for Italian Historical Studies) for "the best work on Italian history" in 1989 for Family, Political Economy, and Demographic Change .
--Guggenheim Fellowship, 1986-1987.
--1985 Marraro Prize (Society for Italian Historical Studies) for "the best work on Italian history" in 1984 for Family Life in Central Italy .
--Fellowship, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, 1982-3.
--Fulbright Senior Lecturer, University of Catania, Italy, winter-spring 1978.
--Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellow, 1972-1973.
--Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude, Brown University, 1969.

 

Population Association of America

 

Social Science History Association

 

American Ethnological Society

 

Society for the Anthropology of Europe

Modern Italian History
Anthropological demography
History of Anthropological Theory
Fascism

Politics and Symbols