God's Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World

The Spanish Inquisition seems a remote if terrifying feature of a dark and distant past. In fact, as this carefully researched study argues, it is a chilling cornerstone of our modern world. Examining the Inquisition from its inception in 1231, Murphy demonstrates how it created the template for the bureaucratic, ideologically driven suppression of dissent exercised by 20th century totalitarian regimes such as those of Hitler and Stalin, and methods that are still practised in Guantanamo Bay.