The ultimate authoritarian

Mussolini and the Eclipse of Italian Fascism: From Dictatorship to Populism by RJB Bosworth (Yale University Press, 352 pages, £25) Much attention has been paid to the populist politics of modern leaders such as Trump and 'rdoğan, and one of the many interesting strands of this new book is whether Mussolini might reasonably be considered the first such populist. RJB Bosworth also suggests that it’s the Italian Fascist, rather than Adolf Hitler, who provided the template for future dictatorships around the world.