Ruth Ben-Ghiat (born April 17, 1960) is an American history professor and political commentator. She is a scholar on fascism and authoritarian leaders.^[1] Ben-Ghiat is a professor of history andItalian studies atNew York University.

Born in the United States to aScottish mother and anIsraeliSephardi Jewish father, she grew up inPacific Palisades, California.^[2][3][4] She has a history degree fromUCLA and obtained her Ph.D. incomparative history atBrandeis University. A member of theAmerican Historical Association since 1990,^[5] she is a professor of history and Italian studies atNew York University.^[6]

Ben-Ghiat was the Spring 2023 Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals at theUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.^[7]

She regularly writes forCNN,The Atlantic, andThe Huffington Post.^[8] She is an advisor toProtect Democracy, an organization opposing attacks on U.S. democracy.^[9]

• Ben-Ghiat, Ruth (2000).La cultura fascista (in Italian). Translated by Bassi, Maria Luisa. Bologna: Il Mulino.^[10]
• Ben-Ghiat, Ruth (2002).Fascist Modernities: Italy, 1922–1945. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.^[11]
• Ben-Ghiat, Ruth; Fuller, Mia, eds. (2005).Italian Colonialism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN 9780230606364.^[12]
• Ben-Ghiat, Ruth; Hom, Stephanie Malia, eds. (2015).Italian Mobilities. London: Routledge.ISBN 9781138778146.OCLC 1061814583.^[13]
• Ben-Ghiat, Ruth (2015).Italian Fascism's Empire Cinema. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.^[14]
• Ben-Ghiat, Ruth (2020).Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.^[15]

• Ben-Ghiat, Ruth (1997). "Language and the Construction of National Identity in Fascist Italy".The European Legacy.2 (3):438–443.doi:10.1080/10848779708579754.
• Ben-Ghiat, Ruth (2001). "The Secret Histories of Roberto Benigni'sLife is Beautiful".The Yale Journal of Criticism.14 (1):253–266.doi:10.1353/yale.2001.0002.S2CID 161994102.
• Ben-Ghiat, Ruth (2005). "Unmaking the Fascist Man: Film, Masculinity, and the Transition from Dictatorship".Journal of Modern Italian Studies.10 (3):336–365.doi:10.1080/13545710500188361.S2CID 144449077.
• Ben-Ghiat, Ruth (2006). "Modernity is Just Over There: Colonialism and the Dilemmas of Italian National Identity".Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies.8 (3):380–393.doi:10.1080/13698010600955883.S2CID 144399136.
• Ben-Ghiat, Ruth (2015). "The Imperial Moment in Fascist Cinema".Journal of Modern European History.13 (1):59–78.doi:10.17104/1611-8944_2015_1_59.S2CID 147023860.
• Ben-Ghiat, Ruth (2017). "Realism in Transition, 1940–43".The Italianist.37 (3):407–415.doi:10.1080/02614340.2017.1409307.S2CID 149392001.

• Ben-Ghiat, Ruth (1991).The formation of a Fascist culture: the Realist movement in Italy, 1930–43 (Thesis). Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University.OCLC 35153484.

• Official website
• Ruth Ben Ghiat, Arts and Science faculty atNew York University
• Appearances onC-SPAN
• Publications by Ruth Ben-Ghiat atResearchGate
• Ruth Ben-Ghiat publications indexed byGoogle Scholar

• 1960 births
• Living people
• 21st-century American historians
• 21st-century American women writers
• American people of Israeli descent
• American people of Sephardic-Jewish descent
• American women historians
• Brandeis University alumni
• Historians of fascism
• Jewish American historians
• New York University faculty
• UCLA College of Letters and Science alumni
• Jewish women non-fiction writers
• 20th-century American historians
• 20th-century American women writers

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use American English from April 2023
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• Use mdy dates from April 2023
• Articles with hCards
• CS1 Italian-language sources (it)
• People appearing on C-SPAN