Brian J Griffith published an article titled “Journey to Fascism” in the Hoover Digest No. 4
Brian J Griffith published an article titled “Journey to Fascism” in the Hoover Digest No. 4 (October 2022): 201-219.
The significance of Ruth Williams Ricci’s story goes beyond the tumultuous two decades between the First and Second World Wars. Indeed, today’s political scene bears many of the same sociopolitical markers of Europe’s so-called “interwar crisis,” including a waning confidence in democratic institutions and practices, a growing number of authoritarian—and, in some cases, openly neo-fascist—political leaders, right-wing militias engaged in campaigns of political violence, and the proliferation of “fake news” as an anti-democratic, mass manipulation strategy. Ricci, in her various ways, enthusiastically promoted an illegal conquest of a sovereign East African kingdom as a civilizing mission. This military campaign demonstrated the League of Nations’ weakness, emboldened other interwar strongmen to defy the international order—above all, Adolf Hitler—and helped push the Western world into World War II.
