"History, culture and Christianity", a book that explores recent history.

Onésimo Díaz, professor at the University of Navarra, has just published a new book graduate Historia, cultura y cristianismo (1870-2020). An account through ten novels and their film adaptations. In its pages, the author analyzes and synthesizes the most relevant events of recent history in an original and entertaining way: the turn of the century, the two world wars, the Cold War, decolonization, the construction and fall of the Berlin Wall, 9/11 and the threat of global terrorism, and so on.

This book is the result of the classes taught by Díaz at subject "History, culture and Christianity in the 20th century", which with time and patience have been transformed into an enjoyable and profound essay . The author intends to reflect 150 years of world history, from 1870 to the year 2020, through ten novels and their film adaptations: The Leopard, Doctor Zhivago, The Cardinal, Return to Brideshead, The Grapes of Wrath, The Remains of the Day, The Twenty-fifth Hour, The Third Man, Live! and Comets in the Sky.

Onésimo Díaz, comments "I have been teaching history for more than twenty years at class and I have realized that cinema and literature are good allies to explain what has happened and why an event happened in one way and not in another. To know what is happening right now in the world (Ukraine, Gaza, etc.) you have to know the history of the last 150 years". 

In Diaz's opinion, "the reader will learn about stories, which allow us to approach the past and raise questions in order to understand the present, through great novels and films. Freedom and oppression, war and peace, Christianity and secularization, and other vital themes appear in works of fiction that captivate us. In these pages we will see how the great events of recent history are related to what is reflected in films and novels. A good novel can be like an open door to the past, allowing us to approach other lives and put ourselves in the place of the other; and a good film can illuminate an aspect of history and even offer a new perspective". 

Onésimo Díaz is researcher and professor of Contemporary History, Deputy Director of the Center of programs of study Josemaría Escrivá (CEJE) and member of group of research in Recent History (GIHRE) at the University of Navarra. He is the author of seventeen books and more than forty articles in specialized journals of contemporary history. 

Access the table of contents and the introduction to the book.