While researching Fascist Italy's 1935 invasion and colonization of Ethiopia at the Hoover Institute Archives at Stanford University, I discovered the collected papers of an extraordinary American woman by the name of Ruth Williams Ricci. Ricci—a fascist sympathizer from New York City who served both as a volunteer nurse in the Italian Red Cross and, later, as a freelance journalist during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War—toured throughout East and North Africa, participated in or witnessed many of Fascist Italy's military and colonial campaigns, had personal contacts among the regime's highest generals and officials, and is believed to have met with and perhaps known Benito Mussolini himself. Ricci wrote extensively about these experiences, producing numerous articles published in both American and Italian journals and newspapers, as well as a partial book manuscript, which has more-or-less collected dust in its box at Stanford University since the late 1970s. Very few researchers have ventured into the collection, still less know about Ricci at all. With the wealth of these largely untapped primary sources in mind, I recently began transcribing and editing Ricci's collected papers with the ultimate goal of partnering with an academic publisher who could help me promote and distribute Ricci's story, along with her voluminous writings, to a wide scholarly and lay audience. I believe Ricci's writings would be appealing and useful to an interdisciplinary group of scholars, including those studying modern Europe, modern Africa, colonialism, post-colonialism, Women and Gender Studies, journalism, Italian Fascism, and more.

Coming soon.