An intriguing examination of the extraordinary–and little known meeting between St. Francis of Assisi and Islamic leader Sultan Malik Al-Kamil that has strong resonance in today's divided world. For many of us, St. Francis of Assisi is known as a poor monk and a lover of animals. However, these images are sadly incomplete, because they ignore an equally important and more challenging aspect of his life -- his unwavering commitment to seeking peace. In The Saint and the Sultan, Paul Moses recovers Francis' s message of peace through the largely forgotten story of his daring mission to end the crusades. In 1219, as the Fifth Crusade was being fought, Francis crossed enemy lines to gain an audience with Malik al-Kamil, the Sultan of Egypt. The two talked of war and peace and faith and when Francis returned home, he proposed that his Order of the Friars Minor live peaceably among the followers of Islam–a revolutionary call at a moment when Christendom pinned its hopes for converting Muslims on the battlefield. The Saint and the Sultan captures the lives of St. Francis and Sultan al-Kamil and illuminates the political intrigue and religious fervor of their time. In the process, it reveals a startlingly timely story of interfaith conflict, war, and the search for peace. More than simply a dramatic adventure, though it does not lack for colorful saints and sinners, loyalty and betrayal, and thrilling Crusade narrative, The Saint and the Sultan brings to life an episode of deep relevance for all who seek to find peace between the West and the Islamic world. Winner of the 2010 Catholic Press Association Book Award for History

The Saint and the Sultan: The Crusades, Islam, and Francis of Assisi's Mission of Peace

History

Moses, Paul

Europe

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An Unlikely Union tells the dramatic story of how two of America’s largest ethnic groups learned to love and laugh with each other after decades of animosity.
They came from the poorest parts of Ireland and Italy and met as rivals on the sidewalks of New York. Beginning in the nineteenth century, the Irish and Italians clashed in the Catholic Church, on the waterfront, at construction sites, and in the streets. Then they made peace through romance, marrying each other on a large scale in the years after World War II.
The vibrant cast of characters features saints such as Mother Frances X. Cabrini, who stood up to the Irish American archbishop of New York when he tried to send her back to Italy, and sinners like Al Capone, who left his Irish wife home the night he shot it out with Brooklyn’s Irish mob. The book also highlights the torrid love affair between radical labor organizers Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Carlo Tresca; the alliance between Italian American gangster Paul Kelly and Tammany’s “Big Tim” Sullivan; heroic detective Joseph Petrosino’s struggle to be accepted in the Irish-run NYPD; and the competition between Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby to become the country’s top male vocalist. 
In this engaging history of the Irish and Italians, veteran New York City journalist and professor Paul Moses offers a classic American story of competition, cooperation, and resilience. At a time of renewed fear of immigrants, An Unlikely Union reminds us that Americans are able to absorb tremendous social change and conflict—and come out the better for it.

An Unlikely Union: The Love-Hate Story of New York's Irish and Italians

Americas

NYU Press

Review\n"An original and deeply researched book that challenges many of the myths distorting our understanding of organized crime in the twentieth century. Paul Moses gracefully conjures the gritty world of Italian policemen, the struggles of the immigrant community they served, the complex realities of NYPD politics, and the formation of a transnational underworld stretching from New York to Sicily." -- Daniel Czitrom, author of New York Exposed\n"A thoughtful, enlightening, deeply researched exploration of the origins of organized crime in the United States. Moses brings to light the real-life origins of the Mafia and the attempts of Italian-American members of the NYPD to bring it to heel. The issues of ethnicity and criminality that Moses addresses are as timely today as they were a century ago. The Italian Squad is anengrossing read from first page to last." -- Peter Quinn, mystery writer, historian, and author of Banished Children of Eve: A Novel of Civil War New York\n"In this absorbing tale of a New York City plagued by bombings, blackmail, and child kidnappings, the unsung heroes of The Italian Squad battle ruthless Black Hand thugs as well as fierce Italian-American prejudice. Moses skillfully tells the little known story of how a group of undercover cops risked their lives to help a vulnerable Italian immigrant population grow and thrive." -- Maria Laurino, author of The Italian Americans: A History\n"In this impeccably researched book, Paul Moses does a masterful job bringing to life the brave men on the front lines of what was a new era in law enforcement. The Italian Squad is a must read for any student of history and organized crime." -- Matt Birkbeck, author of The Life We Chose and The Quiet Don\n"Moses shows how the Italian Squad was one of the first examples of community policing. With a reporter’s eye for detail and a writer’s feel for the sweep of history, Moses brings to life not only Petrosino, martyred during an investigation in Italy, but those many men and women who continued his fight for law and order for nearly two decades." -- Helene Stapinski, author of Murder in Matera\nThe unknown inside story of the NYPD’s Italian-born detectives who fought both powerful gangsters and the deeply ingrained prejudice against their own beloved immigrant community\nThe story begins in Sicily, on Friday, March 12, 1909, at 8:45 p.m. Three gunshots thundered in the night, and then a fourth. Two men fled, and investigators soon discovered who they had killed: Giuseppe Petrosino, the legendary American detective whose exploits in New York were celebrated even in Italy.\nThe Italian Squad, by veteran New York City journalist and historian Paul Moses, explores the lives of the nationally celebrated detectives who followed in the slain Petrosino’s footsteps as leaders of the New York City investigative squad: Anthony Vachris, Charles Corrao, and Michael Fiaschetti. Drawing on new primary sources such as private diaries and city, state, and federal documents, this dramatic narrative history follows the Italian Squad across the first two decades of the twentieth century as its detectives battled increasingly powerful gangsters, political obstacles and deeply ingrained prejudice against their own beloved Italian immigrant community.\nVachris, Corrao, and Fiaschetti became, like Petrosino, famous for meting out tough justice to criminals who comprised the “Black Hand.” Beyond trying to prevent horrific crimes―nighttime bombings in crowded tenements, kidnappings that targeted children at play, gangland shootings that killed innocent bystanders―the Italian Squad commanders hoped to persuade society of what they knew for themselves: that their fellow immigrant Italians, so often maligned, would make good American citizens.\nIn this explosive story, Moses carefully strips away the mythology that has always enveloped the Italian Squad and offers instead a nuanced portrait of brave but flawed men who fought th

The Italian Squad: The True Story of the Immigrant Cops Who Fought the Rise of the Mafia

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Washington Mews Books/NYU Press

This book is a journey in prayer with Pope John Paul II, re-living his dramatic pilgrimage of March 20-26, 2000. For all that was said and written around the world about this trip?about the sensitive politics of the Middle East, about the places visited, about interreligious disputes?John Paul's pilgrimage was, in the end, about a man's prayer to God. This book approaches the events in that spirit. John Paul wanted the world to follow with him as he journeyed through the history of salvation, sensing God's hovering presence in a special time and place. Before starting, he predicted it would be an emotional experience, and it was: ?These have indeed been days of intense emotion, ? the pope said on the final day of his pilgrimage. ?A time when our soul has been stirred not only by the memory of what God has done but by his very presence.?

Days of Intense Emotion

Religion & Spirituality

Keeler, Robert

Christian Books & Bibles

Resurrection Pr

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