The most important one is the reviewer’s neglect of a matter of history that is evident early in the book and that goes to the heart of the cause of The Split. This is the now proven fact that B.A. Santamaria aimed to control the ALP, secretly and from the outside, and to promote legislation through a Labor government in keeping with his own religious/political fantasies. Bemused, if not blinded, by his own enthusiasm and self-righteousness, Santamaria was confident that he would be able to do so. The Pope’s Battalions makes this clear, and provides firm evidence. This is not the first book to do so, but its early chapters also show how these less-than-realistic aims were the outcome of ideological theories of society that Santamaria absorbed from several different sources during his youth. They crystallised in his heart and mind, despite the impracticality of such dreams in the twentieth century, especially in Australia.

It may be conventional to make near-saints of the deceased, but the book provides evidence that planned, deliberate deception was part of Santamaria’s stock-in-trade. A major example was his premeditated assertions, repeated over several years, that he had no serious interest in politics other than opposing communism. And there are countless individual instances of deliberate deceptions.

These two matters of substance – namely, Santamaria’s far-reaching political ambitions, and his deliberate falsifications – should be prominent in any review of Fitzgerald’s well-researched and valuable book.

Robert Corcoran, Edithvale, Victoria