This book explores how the accounts of conversion to the Catholic Church provide an unusual political opinion with serious ramifications during the Risorgimento. This book focuses on feminist critiques of globalization and European identity formation and examines changing conditions of cultural production and their consequences for a European public sphere. It discusses international relations, development and migration, and the levels of transformation of democratic institutions and practices.Examining a variety of newspapers, novels, and inquisition trials, Lang demonstrates how the accounts of conversion to the Catholic Church provide an unusual political opinion with serious ramifications in the shaping of national Italian identity during unification.