Victoria de Grazia is the Moore Collegiate Professor of History at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and founding editor of ''

Radical History Review ''Radical History Review'' is a scholarly journal published by Duke University Press. The journal describes its position as "at the point where rigorous historical scholarship and active political engagement converge".

''.

Biography

De Grazia comes from a family of academics. Her father was

Alfred de Grazia Alfred de Grazia (December 29, 1919 – July 13, 2014), born in Chicago, Illinois, was a political scientist and author. He developed techniques of computer-based social network analysis in the 1950s, developed new ideas about personal digital ar ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

political scientist and decorated

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

veteran specialized in

Psychological operations Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), have been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...

. Among her uncles were

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

-winning author

Sebastian de Grazia Sebastian de Grazia (1917–2000) was an American philosopher who was Professor of Political Philosophy at Rutgers University. He received the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for his 1989 book '' Machiavelli in Hell''. Biography ...

and first amendment lawyer and co-founder of Cardozo Law School

Edward de Grazia Edward Richard de Grazia (February 5, 1927 – April 11, 2013) was an American lawyer, writer, and free speech activist.Douglas Martin(obituary), ''The New York Times'', April 24, 2013. De Grazia was born in Chicago. He served in the U.S. Army d ...

. De Grazia was educated at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

University of Florence The University of Florence (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'', UniFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The first universi ...

, and

where she received her Ph.D. in history with distinction in 1976. She taught at the

European University Institute The European University Institute (EUI) is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral teaching and research institute and an independent body of the European Union with juridical personality, established by the member states to contribu ...

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

, and the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

before joining the

faculty. Her research focuses on twentieth-century European history and consumer culture from a gendered and comparative perspective. She was the recipient of a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1999. She was named to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

in 2005.

Publications

*''The Culture of Consent: Mass Organization of Leisure in Fascist Italy'', Cambridge University Press, 1981 *''How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy, 1922-1945'', University of California Press, 1993 *''The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective'', University of California Press, 1996 *''Irresistible Empire: America’s Advance through Twentieth Century Europe,'' Belknap Press, 2005. *''The Perfect Fascist: A Story of Love, Power, and Morality in Mussolini’s Italy'', Belknap Press, 2020 *''Soft-Power Internationalism: Competing for Cultural Influence in the 21st-Century Global Order'', Columbia University Press, 2021

Awards

De Grazia received a Silver

Independent Publisher Book Award The Independent Publisher Book Awards, also styled the IPPY Awards, are a set of annual book awards for independently published titles. They are the longest-running unaffiliated contest open exclusively to independent presses. The IPPY Awards ar ...

in World History in 2021. She received the

Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...

's Scaglione Prize for her 2020 book ''The Perfect Fascist: A Story of Love, Power, and Morality in Mussolini’s Italy''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:de Grazia, Victoria Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American historians 21st-century American historians Smith College alumni University of Florence alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Columbia University faculty American women historians Historians of Italy Rutgers University faculty City College of New York faculty European University Institute alumni