Strongmen

Mussolini to the Present

By: Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Narrated by: Chloe Cannon

Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is the expert on the "strongman" playbook employed by authoritarian demagogues from Mussolini to Putin. In Strongmen, she lays bare the blueprint these leaders have followed over the past 100 years, and empowers us to recognize, resist, and prevent their disastrous rule in the future. 

For ours is the age of authoritarian rulers: self-proclaimed saviors of the nation who evade accountability while robbing their people of truth, treasure, and the protections of democracy. They promise law and order, then legitimize lawbreaking by financial, sexual, and other predators. They use propaganda, corruption, and violence to stay in power. 

Vladimir Putin and Mobutu Sese Seko's kleptocracies, Benito Mussolini and Muammar Gaddafi's systems of sexual exploitation, and Silvio Berlusconi and Donald Trump's relentless misinformation: all show how authoritarian rule, far from ensuring stability, is marked by destructive chaos. 

Recounting the acts of solidarity and dignity that have undone strongmen over the past 100 years, Ben-Ghiat makes vividly clear that only by seeing the strongman for what he is - and by valuing one another as he is unable to do - can we stop him, now and in the future.

©2020 Ruth Ben-Ghiat (P)2020 Kalorama

Fascism expert talks fascism

Prof. Ben-Ghiat is a leading fascism academic expert who connects the dots linking authoritarianisms of the 20th century through to Trump. Terrifyingly relevant even after his 2020 loss as we try to figure out what went wrong and what needs to be repaired in our democracy. I wish she would have narrated herself because she has videos on her Twitter that were interesting. I always enjoy hearing the authors read in their own cadence and emphasis, but the narrator here is fine.

great book but ...

great book but Chloe Cannon should not read books to others. I don't know what that speech impediment is called? it's something like vocal fry the way she ends everything she says. nearly unlistenable. that's really too bad

Now

It is a very good treatise on what is going on the danger of Trump

Required listening / reading

A must read now for 2021 and beyond also a book I wish we had had, that the thought leaders and journalists had had in 2016

Fascinating through lines

Well researched, including interviews with victims. These dictators must be on a chat group or something because they seem to borrow from each other. But this is good because we can learn from previous scenarios. Book was an informative but easy listen. Well done!

really hits home in the era of Trump

Narrator is a bit mechanical but the history is riveting in the context of America's democratic backsliding.

a must read

This book came to me by way of hearing an interview with the author on PBS Ppen Mind. I was struck by her knowledge on this subject and what next to.predict regarding this current President and his followers. I quickly researched and purchaesed this book and it does not dissappoint. For those who want a global view of arhoritarian leaders and wish tomundersta.d.what can be done to diminish their power, thenis a text on the subject.

biased story

The author's overwhelming bias against Donald Trump adversely effected her credibility towards the other "Strongmen" she wrote about. I was very disappointed with this book