by Gordon Nary
Gordon: What academic degrees do you have?
Patrick: I received the MA from Montclair State College, MA from Seton Hall University, and Ph.D from New York University
Gordon: What initially interested you in a career as an author?
Patrick: A high school English teacher read and praised a short story I had written. That gave me the confidence to continue writing. My love of writing and history led me,
on the path to become a professor. I believe history is a persistent dialogue between the present and the past, interpretations are subject to change as new evidence emerges raising questions, and challenging assumptions.
Gordon: Please provide an overview of your book Old Bread, New Wine: A Portrait of the Italian-Americans.
Patrick: Old Greed New Wine tells the epic story of the Italian-American experience. The history of the Italian-Americas encompasses success and failure, trouble and hardship.
Gordon: Please provide an overview of your book The American Paradox: Politics and Justice in America.
Patrick: This book explores the history of political trials in America .What are political trials and why do they occur ?
Gordon: Please provide an overview of your book Pius XII, the Holocaust and the Revisionists: Essays.
Patrick: Though a series of articles and essays, with eight contributors we critique the works of revisionists who allege that Pius XII was sympathetic to the Nazis and unresistant to their atrocities.
Gordon: Please provide an overview of your book Enemies: Mussolini and the Antifascists.
Patrick: The brutal murder of Giacomo Matteotti spawned the antifascist movement. Mussolini's intervention in the Spanish Civil War, his alliance with Nazi Germany, the anti-Semitic racial laws n Italy were crucial links to the armed resistance.
Gordon: Please provide an overview of your book India's image of the international system
Patrick: In a broad sense this book deals with India's-Nehru's foreign policy, its consequences and limitations
Gordon: The Nazis, the Vatican and the Jews of Rome. What prompted you to write it?
Patrick: On October 16,1943,(Black Saturday),the Jews of Rome were targeted for arrest and deportation. I take the reader directly to Black Saturday, and put a human face on the Jewish victims following them on the train and into Auschwitz. With antisemitism on the rise today and the last witnesses passing away, it is essential to understand and remember what happened in Rome in 1943.The Nazis, the Vatican and the Jews of Rome grapples with this particular episode within the larger, horrifying story of the Holocaust. Despite the inadequacy of memory, we must continue to make sense of the inexplicable.
Gordon: What impact has you faith had upon your career?
Patrick: My faith has established in me a moral sense .I have the sacred responsibility as written in the Gospel of Matthew to honor the spark of the divinity in the least of our brethren. We are all created in the image of God. My career is not motivated by a quest for fame or riches. Our Lord accompanies me on my journey. I know it and feel it.
Gordon: Thank you for an exceptional interview.