In her Inouye Chair keynote address, NYU historian Ruth BenGhiat explains how today’s populists threatening democracy draw from a playbook written by European fascists in the buildup to World War II.

The lecture surveys how institutionalized misogyny, celebration of hypermasculinity, and violent rhetoric are building blocks of modernday authoritarianism.

Keywords: Ruth BenGhiat, strongmen, ideology, exploitation, gender politics, hypermasculinity, propaganda, monopolization, global democracy, illiberal government, toxic masculinity, populism, Trump, Putin, populism, fascism

Ruth BenGhiat is Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University, a Guggenheim fellow, and Advisor to Protect Democracy. She is an MSNBC opinion columnist and a regular contributor to CNN and The Washington Post. She publishes Lucid, a newsletter on threats to democracy.

In her latest book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, BenGhiat looks at how illiberal leaders use propaganda, corruption, violence, and machismo — and how they can be defeated.
Professor BenGhiat is the spring 2023 Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

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