The Pope and Mussolini

This was an absolutely fantastic look at pre-WW2 Italy. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in current events. Undertanding the origins of fascism is really enlightening, especialy at this moment. You may learn a lot about the inner workings of the Vatican, too.

Note: you may wish to review the unification of Italy and general history of Italy from ~1840-1920 as a good foundation before reading this book but that is not at all necessary.