History Professor Publishes Book
Roy Domenico, Ph.D., professor and interim chair of the History Department at The University of Scranton, recently published a new book titled “The Devil and the Dolce Vita. Catholic Attempts to Save Italy’s Soul, 1948-1974.”“The Devil and the Dolce Vita. Catholic Attempts to Save Italy’s Soul, 1948-1974,” a book by Roy Domenico, Ph.D., professor and interim chair of the History Department at The University of Scranton, examines the secularization that occurred during Italy’s economic expansion after World War II and the Church’s efforts to preserve the country’s traditional Catholic culture and values.
“Between Church and politics, faith and hedonism, ‘The Devil and the Dolce Vita’ is an accurate and compelling portrait of the Italian Catholic world at the time of the great secularization,” wrote Eliana Versace, Istituto Paolo VI, Italy, in her review of the book published in 2021 by The Catholic University of America Press.
“Domenico masterfully weaves together broad narrative threads of post-war Italian history with detailed analysis of lesser-known sources that tell us much that we did not know about Catholic attempts to influence cultural practices and social mores. This engagingly written book will greatly enrich our understanding of the often caricatured and polemicized place of Catholicism in Italian politics and civil society,” wrote Robert A. Ventresca of King’s University College at Western University in his review of the book.
A member of The University of Scranton’s faculty since 1997, Dr. Domenico’s major field of study is 19th and 20th century Europe, with emphasis on Italy and Catholic nations. His many publications include the “Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Politics, 1789-present,” edited with Mark Hanley (Greenwood Press, 2006); “Sex, Scandal and Catholic Politics during Italy’s Dolce Vita” in Scandal! An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Consequences, Outcomes, and Significance of Political Scandals edited by Alison Dagnes and Mark Sachleben (Bloomsbury Press, 2014); and “Italian Fascists on Trial, 1943-1948” (University of North Carolina Press, 1991), which won the 1992 Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize from the Society for Italian Historical Studies.
Dr. Domenico received a Fulbright Senior Research Award for Italy in the spring of 2005 semester to research Italian-Catholic political culture during the Cold War. He served as president and currently serves as secretary-treasurer of the Society for Italian Historical Studies, which is affiliated with the American Historical Association, the largest organization of historians in the United States.
A resident of Clarks Green, Dr. Domenico earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, a master’s degree from the University of Connecticut, and a doctorate from Rutgers University.
