Interviews
“In the past, there was this idea that Mussolini copied Hitler, but it was actually the other way around for a very long time,” she adds. “Mussolini was in power 11 years before Hitler. He had things all worked out by the time Hitler came to power.”
Time Magazine, March 22, 2019
“The way Benito Mussolini got power in 1922 is a cautionary tale for the rest of the 20th century and today.”
PBS, January 23, 2019
“There is no doubt that Trump has authoritarian inclinations. His labelling of the press as the ‘enemy of the people,’ use of threat, … need for loyalty, humiliation of all those around him, and admiration of leaders who have stifled democracy, are merely some of the qualities that he has in common with authoritarians past and present.”
Business Insider, November 12, 2018
“The problem is that Trump has made it clear since the campaign that the public he is speaking to, the public he wants to impress, that he cares about, is a public that is not interested in human rights, in democracy and in loving one’s neighbor.”
CNN.com, October 29, 2018
“If you know the authoritarian playbook you are able to find almost nothing [Trump] does surprising.”
Background Briefing podcast with Ian Masters, October 25, 2018
“Trump and Republicans Settle on Fear and Falsehoods as Midterm Strategy”
The Washington Post, October 22, 2018
History Hit with Dan Snow – Mussolini and his inheritors
August 28, 2018
“He [Mussolini] was the first person to turn a democracy into a dictatorship.”
“We’re in a partly Berlusconi moment where….the spectacle of politics has taken over. And again, the big themes of conflicts of interest, of hiring family, of kleptocracy….It’s a debasement of civic life, of the tone of politics, of everything.”
Background Briefing with Ian Masters podcast, August 15, 2018
“Trump has been saying for a long time things like, ‘I am the only one who matters,’” Ben-Ghiat said. “The idea that his instincts are what guide him and he doesn’t need any experts is part of this … That’s all typical of the authoritarian way of doing things.”
The Washington Post, June 11, 2018
“It’s meant to introduce into public discourse unthinkable ideas, and to start working on the public to make those ideas acceptable.”
CBC News, August 5, 2018
Featured Interviews
ABC News – The Breakdown
January 7, 2021
Extremism in America
WNYC, November 23, 2020
Podcast interview on A History Of Modern Authoritarians
David Pakman Show/ Free Speech TV, November 19, 2020
“How Authoritarian Strongmen Come to Power” interview
WBUR, November 12, 2020
Podcast interview on On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti
Vox.com, October 23, 2020
Is Trump a fascist? 8 experts weigh in.
Call him a kleptocrat, an oligarch, a xenophobe, a racist, even an authoritarian. But he doesn’t quite fit the definition of a fascist.
Read the full article here.
CNN International Interview – November 15, 2020
NPR On Point Podcast
“What The ’Strongmen’ Of History Reveal About Modern Politics “
NPR 1A Podcast
“What is Fascism? Is Trump a Fascist?”
“A Scholar of Fascism Sees a Lot That’s Familiar with Trump,”
The New Yorker, November 4, 2016
Read the full article here.
Strange Days with Fernand Amandi
Two of America’s most prescient scholars on autocracy & fascism, Ruth Ben-Ghiat + Sarah Kendzior, sound the alarm on a must-hear #StrangeDaysPodcast.
Click to image below to listen:
Slate Trumpcast
A Historical Lens on Trump’s Authoritarianism