New Article: “Journey to Fascism”
I am pleased to announce the publication of my article, “Journey to Fascism,” in The Hoover Digest. The article examines the pro-fascist propaganda campaigns of Ruth Williams Ricci, whose "reporting" on Fascist Italy's invasion of Ethiopia (1935-1936) was intended to stimulate support for Benito Mussolini's dictatorship among international audiences.
Below is an abstract for “Journey to Fascism,” followed by a URL where you can download a copy of the article.
Article Abstract
Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, authoritarian strongmen cultivated relationships with sympathetic “independent journalists” whose job it was to reformulate and rebroadcast their dictatorships’ key messaging strategies to unsuspecting audiences well beyond their borders. Propagandists, often highly skilled, willingly disseminated “fake news” on behalf of authoritarian regimes on both the right and the left. One such figure, whose story I will recount here, was an interwar, pro-Fascist American woman by the name of Ruth Williams Ricci. The story of Ruth Williams Ricci’s six-year entanglement with Benito Mussolini’s dictatorship begins with the “Ethiopian Crisis.”