The Rise of Fascism: From Benito Mussolini to the Present

MorpheusMirror: We are entering a dangerous time where Christian Nationalist I.E.Christian Nazis are attempting to overthrow the constitution of the United States of America. They’ve always hated the constitution because from a personalities construct the constitution disallows tyrants. What they, the oligarchs attempting to overthrow the Constitution for greedy purposes forget is, if you let one tyrant achieve their goals they never stop. They consume everything until all is dust including them.

We have the People, they only have fear. We the People are the ones and only ones who can stop them and that time is now.

United States on Oct 07, 2023

Teri-Sue Thompson: Having seen many impressive interviews of Ruth Ben-Ghiat, and frequently hearing her use the phrase, "out of the authoritarian playbook," I wanted to read said playbook. This is a page-turner! SO informative. It was eerie at times, to read about some of the authoritarian/fascist leaders in the last century, reading of their behaviors and various incidents ... being reminded of similar actions by Donald Trump. The fact that he is even running for a second term in the Oval Office is frightening. He took a wrecking ball to our Democracy in his first term - he'll finish his destruction if given the chance.

I do wonder about something, though - Knowing that he "reads" very little, how did he become so well acquainted with the authoritarian script? Bannon? Stone? Miller? Or ... osmosis? Hmmmm.

This is an excellent read! You'll definitely understand more about all things related to DJT and his destructive ways after reading this book.

United States on Jul 11, 2023

J W.: Book arrived faster than I expected and in immaculate condition.

Canada on Jun 25, 2023

Amazon Customer: A very readable review of the history and evolution of fascism through the tales of its practioners, From Mussolini to Franco and Hitler. A solid introduction to fascism.

Canada on Apr 29, 2023

Anthony Manera: This account of modern authoritarian regimes is well written and researched (the Bibliography occupies almost one half of the book). Unfortunately, it covers only authoritarians from the right wing of the political spectrum. No mention of Mao, Castro, Chavez, Stalin or others from the left. It may leave some readers with the mistaken impression that authoritarianism is only a right-wing phenomenon, when it clearly covers the full spectrum of political ideologies.

Canada on Jul 24, 2022

Blaine: The most informative book on authoritarian leaders I have ever read. Very relevant.

Canada on Mar 24, 2022

Jack Pine: I wanted an authoritative book to analyze and explain the historical forces that give rise to authoritarian rule. To me it's abhorrent, incomprehensible, yet for millions, and for millennia, it has had and still has hypnotic appeal. Why do apparently sane people become fascist zealots??
Well, I still want to read that book someday. It's not this one, though many parts of the explanation have their moment in Ben-Ghiat's limelight. Strongmen (the book) is built differently - as a series of short examples of behavior (i.e. mis-behavior) of wannabe and actual dictators of the past 100 years. It felt like flashes of intense light in a dark cave, briefly illuminating some subject (usually with little or no introduction), then winking out and the next flash beginning. If (like me) you don't already know the historical figures and events and chronology that pile into your brain, it's - well, it's a pile.

But it works in its own way. As a collage. A picture of the authoritarian, the "strongman" emerges from all the images. Not just of how he snatches power, but of his playbook while in power, and when power ebbs away. A picture that we need to know and recognize in order to...

Canada on Dec 22, 2021

Kehan: This is an excellent book on a very difficult topic, which much more should be written about. However, there are some major problems with it.

The first and most obvious is the limited selection of 'protagonists'. Numbering only 17 in total, it's difficult to get away from the feeling that they were chosen specifically, over others, in order to support the author's various arguments. Plus, of these 17, very little is written about a number of them, such as Idi Amin, Bolsonaro, Modi and Duterte, while a huge amount of ink is spent on Mussolini, Berlusconi, Gaddafi, Pinochet, Trump and Putin. Related to this, the work is very Eurocentric, or Western-centric. The late 20th century was also the era of the strongman in east Asia, but Suharto (even though the Indonesian shared many common points with Pinochet), Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, Chiang Ching-kuo in Taiwan, Chun Doo-hwan in South Korea, and Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore are among the many significant and mostly very long-ruling strongmen who don't even get a mention. The Western-centric flavour is reinforced with claims like the one on Page 48 that “Communism ended” in 1989 (try telling that to Kim...

United States on Dec 11, 2021

E. N. Anderson: I will let "Chris" (see previous review on this page) summarize the book--his review is excellent (and I am in general agreement with his criticisms). I would add, however, that this is an extremely important book; everyone interested in politics should read it. It shows that a quite specific type of strongman--corrupt, openly lecherous, dishonest, and viciously cruel--always seems wildly popular with the voters. Trump has just been narrowly defeated, showing that American democracy does work some even now, but Modi in India, Duterte in the Philippines, Orban in Hungary, and many other utterly evil scoundrels keep getting elected by huge margins. Some of that is cheating, but Ben-Ghiat shows these men are often popular and even beloved. She explains: “The strongman’s trick is to seem exceptional and yet to embody the national everyman, with all of his endearing flaws…. The familiarity of these personages, marketed by their personality cults and populist ideologies as ‘one of us,’ is also why many people don’t see them as dangerous early on.” (P. 252.) There is clearly more. My friend Evan Heinlich comments on Facebook that “They love the thrill of imagining they...

United States on Nov 19, 2020