The Grand Inquisitor’s Manual by nationally bestselling author Jonathan Kirsch is a provocative popular history of the Inquisition; the 12th century reign of church-sanctioned terror. Ranging from the Knights Templar to the first Protestants; from Joan of Arc to Galileo; The Grand Inquisitor’s Manual is a fascinating and sobering study of the torture and murder of hundreds of thousands of “heretics†in God’s name—the original blueprints for persecution originally drafted in the Middle Ages but followed for centuries afterwards; up to and including the “advanced interrogation methods†recently employed at Guantanamo Bay.
#51784 in Books Harper Perennial 2012-10-23 2012-10-23Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.00 x .90 x 5.31l; .61 #File Name: 0061650714374 pages
Review
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful. Not for the sensitive readerBy Prudence TaylorA very difficult book to read and definitely not for the sensitive reader. Moorehead splits her book into 2 parts. The first part tells us how quickly the French Army collapsed under German attack; life in occupied France; the growth of the Resistance Movement; and the background of the Frenchwomen involved in the Resistance.It is the second part that becomes so difficult to read. The women are placed on a train that carries them to Auschwitz/Birkenaur; and they develop a strong friendship that enables them to keep their humanity; their decency; and finally allows a very few of them to survive. Moorehead gives graphic descriptions of how prisoners in the concentration camps were made to suffer at the hands of the SS as well as by other prisoners who were trying to survive the terrible conditions of the camps. The last chapter is one of the hardest to read - the prisoners are free and have returned to their homes to learn that no one wants to listen to them; to hear their experiences. The general attitude is "the war is over; let's move on." One woman meets the gendarme who betrayed her to the Germans on the street; and is shocked when he smiles at her and holds out his hand. Another woman learns that the two gendarmes who betrayed her and her husband fought the Germans at the end of the war and are immune from prosecution. We get a sense of their frustration as many of the guilty are not punished but go on to have good lives. All in all; an important book but one that is hard to read and almost impossible to put down. Highly recommended but not for the sensitive reader. (less)8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. We didn't even know how to pull it apart to have a useful discussion. This book needed a strong editor at ...By ShawnRemarkable achievement to track down the few survivors. That said; the author took on too ambitious a project; and all these women's stories start to get muddled. Any ONE of these women's tales would have been poignant; even overwhelming; especially if told in the context of WWII and the setting of occupied France. My book club gave it a thumbs down. We didn't even know how to pull it apart to have a useful discussion. This book needed a strong editor at the start (BEFORE the author ever wrote a word!) to help shape the story and how to most effectively tell it. Too bad it wasn't taken more seriously by the publisher and shepherded through the publication process with more care.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. This book needed to be written and read.By MarigoldHaving read some of the negative reviews of this book; I agree with most of them; particularly about the author's over-use of French and German phrases which are frustrating for those of us who studied another foreign language.....Spanish and Latin; in my case.Part One of the book is tedious as it goes through the listing of the women who will be discussed in more detail in Part Two.I give this book four stars because; frankly; it is a book that needed to be written.The expression; "How soon we forget" is now happening; today; as I find few Millennials who have any real knowledge of the Holocaust; of German atrocities during WW2; of Japanese atrocities in China and the Pacific theatre in the 1930's and during the war; of the devastation that the war had on civilians even after the cessation of fighting and the trauma of the war years that people endured for the rest of their lives.This book and others like it must be written and must be read.If there are some peculiarities about the book that make it tedious or difficult to stay with it; then we must push through all that and be thankful that these particular women will; in a way; not have died in vain and their names and lives will be remembered and memorialized.
