payment page
Study Tools
Overview
Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present (2020), by author and scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat, discusses the patterns followed by authoritarian rulers of the past and examines how they apply to regimes and rulers around the world today
. Ben-Ghiat examines how “strongman” leaders rise to power, maintain their power, and, eventually, lose it. Both the first edition (2020) and the republished edition (2021) were New York Times best sellers. The 2021 edition was published with a new epilogue Strongmen has been praised for its relevancy by other political historians, including Timothy Snyder, author of the New York Times best seller On Tyranny (2017) and On Freedom (2024). Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University as well as the author of multiple books and essays on both Italian history and authoritarian regimes.Explore a full book summary & analysis, a discussion of the main ideas, and Key Questions & Answers in Strongmen.
