Historian, Educator, and Commentator

Ruth Ben-GhiatRuth Ben-Ghiat is Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University. She writes about authoritarianism, propaganda, and democracy protection. She is the recipient of Guggenheim and other fellowships and a media commentator. She publishes Lucid, a Substack newsletter on threats to democracy in the U.S. and abroad.

Her New York Times bestseller Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, examines how authoritarian leaders use corruption, violence, propaganda, and machismo to stay in power, and how resistance to them has unfolded over a century. She is a consultant for television and film productions, including the Academy Award-winning 2022 movie Pinocchio (Guillermo del Toro, 2022), and the Netflix docuseries Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial (Joe Berlinguer, 2024). She advises Protect Democracy and civil society organizations, including churches and multinational corporations, that face autocratic interferences in the US and around the world.

Subscribe to Lucid, her Substack newsletter about democracy in the U.S. and around the world.

Join the popular weekly Lucid live Q&As. With clarity and resolve, we can prevail against autocracy. 

Strongmen - Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Learn More

A New York Times Bestseller. Now Available in paperback, with a new epilogue about Jan 6th.

Strongmen

Mussolini To The Present

Ours is the age of the strongman, of heads of state who damage or destroy democracy, use masculinity as a tool of political legitimacy, and promise law and order rule – and then legitimize lawless behavior by financial, sexual, and other predators. Covering a century of tyranny, this book examines how authoritarians use propaganda, virility, corruption, and violence to stay in power, and how they can be opposed.

LIMITED TIME: Strongmen Audiobook Discount

Get the audiobook version of Strongmen at 60% off the regular price.
This discount is good through June 30, 2024.  Get your copy today.

Get 60% Off the Regular Price!

Recent Articles

Subscribe To Lucid

"Trump Wants You to Get Used to This"

The New York Times, June 15, 2025

Mr. Trump appears eager to create optics that support his claim that public dissent constitutes an existential threat to the nation. He also apparently seeks to get the American public used to seeing our armed forces in a new light.

Click To Read

"Americans' Denial About Trump is Deeper Than Ever,"

MSNBC, May 26, 2024

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who incited a violent insurrection in January 2021 to try and remain in office illegally after he lost the 2020 election, has been clear about what kind of president he intends to be if he returns to the White House in January 2025.

Click To Read

A New Kind of Coup: Trump and Musk are Updating the Autocratic Playbook

Lucid, February 2, 2025

It seems like the plot of a political thriller. We are living through a new kind of coup in which Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has taken over the payment and other administration systems that allow the American government to function, and has locked out federal employees from computer systems.

Click To Read

Hitler's End: A Study of Strongman Dysfunction

Lucid, April 30, 2024

We pay much attention these days to how dictators come to power, but understanding how they decline and exit –almost always involuntarily—and remembering the disasters they caused to their people and the world is equally important right now.

Click To Read

Trump’s Praise of Dictators Tells Us All We Need to Know

CNN, March 4, 2023

Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Viktor Orban, Adolf Hitler, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un, Saddam Hussein: What do they have in common? All of these authoritarians have reportedly drawn praise from former US president — and now GOP presidential nominee — Donald Trump…

Click To Read

What the Authoritarian Playbook Tells Us About Netanyahu, Israel’s Strongman

Haaretz, August 14, 2023

Israel’s mass pro-democracy protest movement has given many Israelis hope. But their growing resistance is understood by strongmen leaders like Netanyahu as a betrayal that only hardens their will to prevail and their appetite for revenge.

Click To Read

TELEVISION COMMENTARY

Ruth on Project 2025
MSNBC, July 3, 2024

Democratic Emergency in Turkey
CNN International, March 19, 2025

Why are Republicans so Pro-Russia?
CNN, May 25, 2024

‘Why aren’t people more alarmed?’: As Trump becomes more extreme, Americans get used to it
MSNBC, October 19, 2024

Trump needs lawless people for his planned autocracy
MSNBC, November 19, 2023

How Trump’s rhetoric compares to historic fascist language
PBS, October 28, 2024