Full name: The Spanish Inquisition: A History

Author: Joseph Perez Year: 2005 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: History Purchase/reserch links: Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780300119824 0300119828

This is the story of 350 years of terror. Established by papal bull in 1478, the first task of the Spanish Inquisition was to question Jewish converts to Christianity and to expose and execute those found guilty of reversion. Authorities then turned on Spanish Jews in general, sending 300,000 into exile. Next in line were humanists and Lutherans. No rank was exempt. Children informed on their parents, merchants on their rivals, and priests upon their bishops. Those denounced were guilty unless they could prove their innocence. Nearly 32,000 people were publicly burned at the stake; the "fortunate" ones were flogged, fined, or imprisoned.Joseph Pérez tells the history of the Spanish Inquisition from its medieval beginnings to its nineteenth-century ending. He discovers its origins in fear and jealousy and its longevity in usefulness to the state. He explores the inner workings of its councils, and shows how its officers, inquisitors, and leaders lived and worked. He describes its techniques of interrogation and torture, and shows how it refined displays of punishment as instruments of social control. The author ends his fascinating account by assessing the impact of the Inquisition over three and a half centuries on Spain's culture, economy, and intellectual life. Similar books: The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan All Hell Let Loose by Max Hastings 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof by J. A. Rogers Dreamers and Deceivers by Glenn Beck Twenty Million Tons Under the Sea by Daniel V. Gallery History by Adam Hart-Davis Astoria by Peter Stark Nature's Metropolis by William Cronon The Gold Hunters by J. D. Borthwick The Search for Modern China by Jonathan D. Spence Inside the Victorian Home by Judith Flanders Congo by David Van Reybrouck The Structures of Everyday Life by Fernand Braudel Troublemakers by Leslie Berlin The Rich Don't Always Win by Sam Pizzigati Bird Woman by J. W. Schultz Champion Hill by Timothy B. Smith The Weight of Vengeance by Troy Bickham Where the Sea Breaks Its Back by Corey Ford That Every Man Be Armed by Stephen P. Halbrook