民主觉醒 美国国情笔记
作者：希瑟·考克斯·理查森 (作者)
纽约时报畅销书
“引人入胜且易于接近。”——《波士顿环球报》
“这是一部充满活力、重要的历史，讲述了美国自建国以来为实现自己的最佳理想而进行的无休止、令人愤怒和绝对引人注目的斗争……这既是希望的理由，也是战斗的号召。”——简·梅尔，《黑钱》作者
来自历史学家和流行日报《美国人的来信》的作者的重要叙述，解释了美国这个曾经的民主灯塔现在如何在独裁的边缘摇摇欲坠，以及我们如何能够回头。
在 2019 年弹劾危机期间，希瑟·考克斯·理查森 (Heather Cox Richardson) 在 Facebook 上发表了一篇每日文章，提供每日新闻洪流的历史背景。 它很快变成了一份时事通讯，其读者群激增至超过 200 万忠实读者，这些读者依赖于她对美国现在和过去的直言不讳和见多识广的看法。
在《民主觉醒》中，理查森精心设计了一个引人入胜的原创叙述，解释了几十年来一小群富人如何对美国理想发动战争。 通过将语言武器化和宣扬虚假历史，他们将我们带入了威权主义——创造了一群心怀不满的民众，然后承诺重建一个想象中的过去，让这些人再次感到自己很重要。 她认为，要夺回我们的国家，首先要记住边缘化美国人一直坚持的国家真实历史的要素。 他们对建国原则的奉献使我们能够更新和扩大我们过去对民主的承诺。 理查森将这段历史视为国家未来的路线图。
理查森的才华在于将庞大、曲折且令人困惑的新闻源整理成一个连贯的故事，指出我们应该关注的内容、先例是什么以及未来可能的道路。 在她标志性的冷静散文中，她对民主的未来持现实和乐观的态度。 她对历史的掌握使她能够毫不费力地从开国元勋到废奴主义者，再到重建时期的戈德华特，再到米奇·麦康奈尔，强调了新政的政治遗产、对社会主义挥之不去的恐惧、自由主义共识的消亡以及“运动保守主义”的诞生。 ”。
许多书籍告诉我们过去五年发生了什么。 《民主觉醒》解释了我们如何走到了这个危险的地步，我们的历史真正告诉我们关于我们自己的事情，以及民主的未来会是什么样。
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民主觉醒评论：希瑟·考克斯·理查森必要的美国历史
这位波士顿学院教授为共和党极端主义提供了宝贵的入门读物，同时也提供了进步的成就
查尔斯·凯撒 2023 年 10 月 8 日
在媒体环境被沉迷于廉价刺激的政客（马特·盖茨、马乔里·泰勒·格林、橙色怪物）和沉迷于廉价刺激的专家（肖恩·汉尼提、劳拉·英格拉汉姆、史蒂夫·班农）所污染的情况下，希瑟·考克斯·理查森的成功远不止于此。 比吹一口新鲜空气更重要。 这是一个真正的奇迹。
这位波士顿学院历史学教授大约四年前开始撰写她的时事通讯《一个美国人的来信》。 如今，她每日讲述的有关当日新闻的常识，被包裹在美国历史的优雅包装中，拥有惊人的 120 万订阅者，使她成为 Substack 上最受欢迎的作家。 自从 20 世纪 60 年代爱德华·P·摩根 (Edward P Morgan) 每晚 15 分钟的广播吸引了自由派精英以来，还没有一位专家同时对这么多进步的美国人如此重要。
在社交媒体时代，理查森的成功是违反直觉的。 几年前，当本·史密斯（Ben Smith）在《纽约时报》上介绍她时，史密斯承认他对推特如此沉迷，以至于很少有时间打开她对新闻的“丰富摘要”。 当他告诉理查森最早的发起人之一比尔·莫耶斯（Bill Moyers）同样的事情时，这位伟大的评论员解释道：“你生活在一个雷暴的世界，她看着海浪袭来。”
理查森的最新著作分享了她通讯中的所有情报。 它没有她在互联网上发表的文章那样的新闻价值，但对于任何需要了解美国过去 150 年历史重要事实以及这些事实如何导致我们今天所居住的令人遗憾的地方的人来说，它是一本极好的入门读物。
与达纳·米尔班克（Dana Milbank）的《破坏主义者》等其他新书一样，理查森的新书提醒我们，唐纳德·特朗普绝非异类，在共和党迎合大企业、种族主义和基督教民族主义70年之后，唐纳德·特朗普是不可避免的。
希瑟·考克斯·理查森 (Heather Cox Richardson) 于 2022 年采访乔·拜登。希瑟·考克斯·理查森 (Heather Cox Richardson) 于 2022 年采访乔·拜登。
从现代保守主义的萌芽到今天自由核心小组的疯狂，可以划出许多直接的线索。 小威廉·F·巴克利（William F Buckley Jr）是那个时代最著名的保守派专家，他在 1951 年攻击大学教授“世俗主义和集体主义”，并宣扬自由主义者基本上都是共产主义者的谣言。 理查森写道，在巴克利的死敌中，每个人都“相信政府应该监管商业、保护社会福利、促进基础设施建设和保护公民权利”，并且“相信基于事实的论点”。
巴克利和他的追随者想要一种新的“正统宗教和自由市场意识形态”，以取代富兰克林·罗斯福新政中出现的自由主义共识。 几年后，共和党总统候选人巴里·戈德华特 (Barry Goldwater) 提出反对 1964 年民权法案的竞选纲领。 四年后，理查德·尼克松 (Richard Nixon) 的南方战略承诺减缓最高法院 14 年前下令废除的种族隔离政策。
在有史以来最臭名昭著的狗哨之一中，罗纳德·里根 (Ronald Reagan) 开始了 1980 年的总统竞选活动，宣布了他对密西西比州费城各州权利的热爱——该州因民权工作者詹姆斯·钱尼 (James Chaney)、安德鲁·古德曼 (Andrew Goodman) 和迈克尔·施维尔纳 (Michael Schwerner) 被谋杀而臭名昭著。 1964年。
理查森写道，自 20 世纪 50 年代以来，保守派一直在努力摧毁“自由派共识的积极政府，自 20 世纪 80 年代以来，共和党政客们已经对其进行了攻击”，但仍然“让政府的大部分内容完好无损”。 随着2016年特朗普当选，这个国家终于“上任了一位将利用权力摧毁国家的总统”。 共和党人为“结束商业监管和社会服务及其所需的税收”奋斗了 50 年。 特朗普走得更远，“从寡头政治到威权主义的飞跃”。
理查森令人耳目一新地直接谈到了法西斯榜样对特朗普及其马加运动的重要性。 2020 年，第一夫人梅拉尼娅·特朗普 (Melania Trump) 在白宫举办共和党全国代表大会时，身穿“让人想起纳粹制服的连衣裙”。 而且，理查森写道，弥天大谎是纳粹的“关键宣传工具”，希特勒本人在《我的奋斗》中对此进行了解释，特朗普可能将这本书放在特朗普大厦的床头柜上（或者可能是希特勒的演讲集） ）。
林登·约翰逊 (Lyndon B Johnson) 在华盛顿美国国会大厦签署了 1965 年投票权法案。
理查森甚至利用二战期间美国情报机构战略服务办公室对希特勒的心理分析来提醒我们与特朗普的相似之处。 战略情报局表示，希特勒的“主要规则是：永远不要让公众冷静下来； 绝不承认过失或错误； 永远不要承认你的敌人可能有一些优点……永远不要接受责备； 一次只专注于一个敌人，并把所有出错的事情归咎于他”。
但理查森的书不仅仅是对共和党邪恶的背诵。 这也是对进步成功的庆祝。 她提醒我们，在越南毁掉他的总统任期之前，林登·约翰逊创造了令人难以置信的记录。 国会在一次会议上通过了令人震惊的 84 项法律。 约翰逊的“伟大社会”包括 1965 年投票权法案； 《中小学教育法》，为公立学校提供联邦援助； 推出Head Start，为低收入家庭儿童提供早期教育； 创建医疗保险的社会保障修正案； 增加福利金； 租金补贴； 1965 年《水质法》； 以及国家艺术基金会和国家人文基金会。
这些法律产生了显着的影响。 “1960 年有四千万美国人很穷”； 到 1969 年，这一数字已降至 2400 万。
1964 年，约翰逊在向密歇根大学的毕业生发表讲话时，使用了至今仍适用的话语：“无论好坏，你们这一代人已被历史指定……带领美国走向新时代……你们可以帮助建立一个社会，满足人们的需求。” 道德和精神的需要，可以在民族生活中实现。”
约翰逊拒绝了那些“胆怯的灵魂”，他们相信“我们注定要拥有没有灵魂的财富。 我们有能力塑造我们想要的文明。 但如果我们要建设这样的社会，我们需要你们的意志、你们的劳动、你们的心。”
“美国民主的终结”：希瑟·考克斯·理查森谈特朗普的历史性威胁
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/07/american-democracy-heather-cox-richardson-trump-biden
这位历史学家和 Substack 超级巨星表示，美国正处于内战以来从未见过的危险之中，而乔·拜登是其最好的捍卫者
作者：David Smith，华盛顿@smithinamerica，2023 年 10 月 7 日
凯文·西弗里德做了叛军永远做不到的事情。 2021 年 1 月 6 日，这位 53 岁的男子举着南方邦联旗帜穿过美国国会大厦。 对于希瑟·考克斯·理查森等研究美国内战的历史学家来说，这就像对太阳神经丛的打击。
“特朗普列车”对拜登巴士的袭击如何预示 1 月 6 日 — — 并呼应血腥历史
“内战的全部意义在于确保战旗永远不会对美国国会大厦产生影响，”她在缅因州奥古斯塔附近通过 Zoom 说道。 “在损失了近 60 亿美元和 600,000 人生命的情况下，他们把那面旗帜拒之门外，然后，我很抱歉，但那些混蛋把它带进来了。我看到了这一点，而且受到的打击比任何其他都要大 对我来说，这是历史上的一个时刻，作为一名历史学家，我和我一样深刻地经历了那场内战。”
60 岁的理查森是波士顿学院的历史学教授，被《纽约时报》形容为时事通讯平台 Substack 的“突破之星”，她的《来自美国人的来信》在该平台上拥有超过 100 万订阅者。 她在 Facebook 上拥有 170 万粉丝，而她在 X（以前称为 Twitter）上的简介则写道：“历史学家。 作者。 教授。 脾气暴躁的萌芽者。 我研究美国形象与现实之间的对比，尤其是在政治领域。”
读者们欢迎理查森的能力，就像肯·伯恩斯、雷切尔·马多和乔恩·米查姆一样，他通过向我们保证我们以前来过这里并且幸存下来来理解特朗普时代的混乱。 她是 Vox Media 播客《Now & Then》的联合主持人，也是有关内战、重建、镀金时代和美国西部的获奖书籍的作者。
现在，她推出了《民主觉醒：美国状况笔记》，这是对世界上最富有的民主国家如何在唐纳德·特朗普的帮助下摇摇欲坠的独裁主义悬崖的深思熟虑的研究。 事情完成了，她似乎松了口气。
“每天写 1,200 个字本身就是一件苦差事，然后在上面写一本书几乎要了我的命，”理查森承认。 “写这本书的初衷是收集一些文章来回答每个人一直问我的问题——什么是南方战略？ 各方如何倒戈？ ——但很快我就意识到这是一个关于民主如何被破坏的故事。”
其中至关重要的是，如何利用历史和语言来分裂人口，并让一些人相信，他们在经济、社会或文化上落后的唯一原因是因为敌人。 理查森认为，解药是一段明确的民主历史，
“基于这样的理念：边缘化人群始终将《独立宣言》的原则置于我们历史的前沿和中心”。
她并没有手下留情。 她的序言指出，美国民主的危机悄然蔓延到了许多人身上，并与阿道夫·希特勒通过政治利益和巩固实现的崛起进行了直接比较。
“民主国家更多地死于投票箱，而不是死于枪口，”她写道。
1 月 6 日，一面邦联旗帜在参议院外飘扬。1 月 6 日，一面邦联旗帜在参议院外飘扬。摄影：Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA
她认为，美国目前的困境始于同一个十年：20 世纪 30 年代。 就在那时，厌恶富兰克林·罗斯福新政中的商业法规的共和党人开始考虑与南方民主党人结盟，他们发现罗斯福的计划不够种族隔离，而西部民主党人则对联邦政府保护土地和水的想法感到不满。 1937年，这个邪恶的联盟提出了一份“保守党宣言”。
理查森说：“当消息被泄露给报纸时，他们都像老鼠一样逃跑，因为共和党人认为从外部对抗罗斯福比尝试与民主党人合作更好，而且民主党人不想批评他们自己的总统 。 他们都否认这一点，但这份宣言在全国各地重印在亲商业和种族主义的报纸和小册子上，而且它的影响力很长。
“他们想要摆脱商业监管，他们想要摆脱基本的社会安全网并将所有这些都送回教会，他们想要摆脱罗斯福正在参与的基础设施项目，因为他们认为成本太高 税收，而且应该是私人投资。 他们并没有真正谈论公民权利，因为罗斯福实际上只是在新政计划中调侃平等的想法，但他们确实说他们想要自治和州权利，这是“我们不想要公民权利”的代码。 权利。’”
这四项原则将成为巴里·戈德华特和罗纳德·里根等共和党人的蓝图，语言有时直接映射。 理查森认为，20 世纪 70 年代初，共和党人开始推行反民主策略，例如不公正地划分选区和司法右移。 他们还花了几十年的时间发动“信息战”。
一个典型的例子是 1998 年对比尔·克林顿的弹劾，试图让公众相信他不是合法总统。
“那个时代正是国会开始调查抹黑民主党的时期，”理查森说。 “这些调查没有发现任何结果，但这并不重要，因为它让美国人民知道了一些东西确实存在。”
特朗普登场了，他是一个吹牛大王，将虚假信息变成了商界的一种艺术形式，并成为了电视真人秀明星。 他向基督教保守派承诺，他将任命右翼法官； 他向财政保守派承诺将减税； 他向白人工人阶级承诺，他理解他们的怨恨。 他把这个聚会变成了他自己的聚会。
理查森说：“建制派共和党人利用堕胎问题，利用‘民主党是邪恶的’来继续掌权，并实施了本质上是对 1933 年以来一直存在的联邦政府的自由主义破坏。但我不知道 我不认为他们打算放弃自己的权力。 特朗普看了一眼，说道：“我要绕过你，直接绕过这个问题。”他之所以能做到这一点，是因为他是一位出色的推销员，而且他实施了一些非常不同的东西。
“特朗普是一个有趣的人物，因为他不是政治家。 他是一名推销员，这是一个重要的区别，因为在 2016 年，他为美国的某一部分人举起了一面镜子，这部分人因 1981 年以来通过的立法而受到伤害，并给了他们他们想要的东西。
“如果你还记得 2016 年，他是当时舞台上在经济问题上最温和的共和党人。 他谈到了基础设施、公平税收、更便宜和更好的医疗保健以及恢复制造业。 他谈到了所有这些经济问题，但他也谈到了种族主义和性别歧视，当然这就是他真正想要的，他可以利用的愤怒。
“利用这种愤怒对于他打造威权运动至关重要，因为至少在美国，威权右翼运动始终来自街头暴力，而不是上层，以及法西斯主义应该是什么样子的想法。 他故意利用了他可能因种族主义和性别歧视而引发的愤怒情绪。”
理查森再次毫不羞涩地援引了纳粹的比较，她引用了传播学学者迈克尔·索科洛的观察，即特朗普在 2020 年国情咨文中展示了他可以“让受伤的个人走向荣耀”，这反映了希特勒的表现，
反映了希特勒的表演，他试图展示一种改变生活的近乎神奇的力量。
特朗普的崛起可以说是意志的胜利。 共和党政客几乎没有提供任何辩护。
“如果有一个群体在这一切中激怒了我，那就是参议员，”理查森说。 “共和党参议员随时都可以阻止特朗普，他们喜欢减税，然后他们就害怕他的追随者。 他们应该在2015年、2016年、2017年阻止他，现在他们可以阻止他，但他们不会。 我厌倦了听到这些人说：‘好吧，我们知道他很糟糕。’谢谢你们！”
尽管受到 91 项刑事指控，特朗普仍在共和党初选中占据主导地位。 民调显示他与拜登并驾齐驱。 这看起来像是一场势均力敌的事情。 特朗普连任对美国意味着什么？
“美国民主的终结。 我对此毫无疑问，而且他说得很清楚。 你看一下“2025计划”，它有一千页纸讲述了如何解散自1933年以来保护公民权利、提供基本社会安全网、规范商业和促进基础设施的联邦政府。他2024年竞选活动的主题是报复。
“我认为人们现在不明白，如果唐纳德·特朗普再次获胜，我们将让那些想要烧毁一切的人掌权。 我的意思是，他们肯定想伤害他们的敌人，但只要他们能够控制，他们不在乎这是否意味着北约解体，或者美国人正在挨饿或死于流行病。 只要有人受伤，对他们来说就足够了。”
拜登了解这种威胁。 上个月，他在亚利桑那州凤凰城再次发出严厉警告。 总统的支持率很低，一些民主党人也焦躁不安，但理查森以历史学家的眼光审视了他的记录。
2022 年 2 月，乔·拜登和希瑟·考克斯·理查森在白宫中国厅谈话。
2022 年 2 月，乔·拜登和希瑟·考克斯·理查森在白宫中国厅谈话。摄影：世界政治档案馆 (WPA)/Alamy
“拜登是一个迷人的人物，因为他是极少数能够遇到这一刻的人之一。 老实说，我不是拜登的支持者。 我以为我们需要一个新的、更有进取心的人，但我完全承认我错了，因为他首先对外交事务有非常深刻的了解，而我倾向于诋毁这一点。
“我认为在 2020 年这并不重要，我的想法还能更错吗？ 我想不是。 这确实很重要，而且仍然很重要，因为共和党人现在退出乌克兰的原因之一是，他们认识到，尽管美国报纸没有报道乌克兰问题，但乌克兰实际上正在取得重要进展。 乌克兰人的胜利确实会促进拜登的连任，共和党人认识到这一点，并且愿意破坏这一点，只要这意味着他们可以在这里重新掌权。 他对外交事务的理解是关键。
“拜登的另一件事是，他在交易方面的非凡技巧使这届国内政府成为至少自伟大社会和可能自新政以来最有效的政府。 你想想特朗普永远无法让基础设施获得国会通过的事实，尽管每个人都想要它。
“这是一个巨大的问题，但所有这一切背后的全部论点是，他需要证明政府可以为人民服务，40 年来我们一直认为政府在与我们作对。 这对他来说是一个越来越难提出的理由，因为媒体没有注意到这一点。
“进入 2024 年的问题是：人们会理解拜登创建了一个为人民服务的政府吗？ 无论你个人是否喜欢其政策，他都在试图利用该政府以一种自 1981 年以来共和党从未做过的方式来满足人民的需求。他是一位变革性的总统。 是否足够，我们将在 14 个月后知道答案。”
拜登下个月就满81岁了，他也是最年长的总统。 调查显示，许多民主党人认为他太老了。 理查森不买账。
“他比尘土还老； 他们都是。 但年龄对于他来说其实也是一种好处。 首先，这对很多年长的白人来说没有威胁，其次，他确实拥有 40 岁的人所没有的联系。
“我不断地观察他，不断地阅读他的文章，我见过他并采访过他。 他精神状态很好。 随着年龄的增长，当我执行任务时，我不会错过任何一个技巧。 在此之后我要去杂货店，很有可能我会遇到一个我很熟悉但不记得他们名字的人。 就是那样子。”
理查森在对 19 世纪历史的挖掘和对当今热门政治故事的连续评论之间游走。 周三，她的 Substack 专栏专门讨论了众议院议长凯文·麦卡锡 (Kevin McCarthy) 的下台。
她反思道：“像我这样的人所做的一件事就是为人们在沼泽中提供坚实的基础。 也就是说，在多年无法分辨什么是真实的之后，有人说，“这发生了，这发生了，这发生了，这里有引文，你可以去检查，事情就是这样运作的，”是非常 安慰。
“也许这只是我的问题，因为当我每天早上写作时，我自己都不知道答案。 但是，例如，当我想知道委员会中发生了什么时，我实际上会进行研究并说这就是发生的事情，这样我就可以在晚上睡觉时感觉脚在我下面。
“所以，这部分是对历史的探索，但同时也是一种让你再次了解世界的感觉，当你被听证会、谎言和所有这些废话轰炸时，这是很难做到的。 事实上，我认为它的意义与其说是关于历史，不如说是关于回归基于现实的社区。”
黑色星期五购物：美国总统乔·拜登买了一本书
2023 年 11 月 25 日，
传统的“黑色星期五”购物活动标志着美国假日购物季的开始，零售商提供大幅折扣以吸引顾客。 今年的活动是在经济不确定的情况下举行的，商店提供了更大的折扣，以吸引一直在应对持续通胀和 Covid-19 大流行持续影响的消费者。
在黑色星期五，前往购物中心和商店的购物者会受到各种激励措施，从香槟到虚拟现实体验和传统的上门促销。
零售商的这些努力旨在吸引今年对不必要的支出和冲动购买日益谨慎的顾客。
随着储蓄减少和信用卡债务增加，消费者感到手头拮据。 尽管通货膨胀略有缓和，但各种物品的成本，包括肉类和住房等必需品的成本，仍比三年前高得多。
继“黑色星期五”之后，零售业也正在为“网络星期一”做准备，这是另一项针对在线购物者的重大销售活动。
美国总统拜登还在楠塔基特岛进行了黑色星期五购物，全球都在关注加沙地带为期四天的休战期间哈马斯释放人质。 总统在儿子亨特·拜登的陪同下参观了一家书店，秉承了家庭传统。 他说：“不去书店就不能来。 我们有一个传统。”
在疯狂购物之前，拜登向全国发表了关于人质危机的讲话，表示对 10 月 7 日以色列南部袭击中被劫为人质的多达 9 名美国公民的释放存在不确定性。 “我们不知道什么时候会发生……我希望并期望它会很快发生，”拜登说。
哈马斯承诺在未来三天内再释放 26 名人质，即约 240 名人质中的 50 名人质，但这些人质的身份仍不清楚。
据《纽约邮报》报道，亨特·拜登在特拉华州面临联邦枪支指控，在洛杉矶面临潜在的税务指控，他在盗贼兄弟会餐厅用餐后和父亲一起去购物。 拜登一家在度假期间住在亿万富翁大卫·鲁宾斯坦的家里。
拜登总统在购物时购买了历史学家希瑟·考克斯·理查森的《民主觉醒》一书。 第一夫人吉尔·拜登向记者提到，一家人过得很开心。
Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America
By Heather Cox Richardson (Author)
New York Times Bestseller
“Engaging and highly accessible.”—Boston Globe
“A vibrant, and essential history of America’s unending, enraging and utterly compelling struggle since its founding to live up to its own best ideals… It’s both a cause for hope, and a call to arms.”–Jane Mayer, author Dark Money
From historian and author of the popular daily newsletter LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN, a vital narrative that explains how America, once a beacon of democracy, now teeters on the brink of autocracy — and how we can turn back.
In the midst of the impeachment crisis of 2019, Heather Cox Richardson launched a daily Facebook essay providing the historical background of the daily torrent of news. It soon turned into a newsletter and its readership ballooned to more than 2 million dedicated readers who rely on her plainspoken and informed take on the present and past in America.
In Democracy Awakening, Richardson crafts a compelling and original narrative, explaining how, over the decades, a small group of wealthy people have made war on American ideals. By weaponizing language and promoting false history they have led us into authoritarianism — creating a disaffected population and then promising to recreate an imagined past where those people could feel important again. She argues that taking our country back starts by remembering the elements of the nation’s true history that marginalized Americans have always upheld. Their dedication to the principles on which this nation was founded has enabled us to renew and expand our commitment to democracy in the past. Richardson sees this history as a roadmap for the nation’s future.
Richardson’s talent is to wrangle our giant, meandering, and confusing news feed into a coherent story that singles out what we should pay attention to, what the precedents are, and what possible paths lie ahead. In her trademark calm prose, she is realistic and optimistic about the future of democracy. Her command of history allows her to pivot effortlessly from the Founders to the abolitionists to Reconstruction to Goldwater to Mitch McConnell, highlighting the political legacies of the New Deal, the lingering fears of socialism, the death of the liberal consensus and birth of “movement conservatism.”
Many books tell us what has happened over the last five years. Democracy Awakening explains how we got to this perilous point, what our history really tells us about ourselves, and what the future of democracy can be.
Democracy Awakening review: Heather Cox Richardson's necessary US history
The Boston College professor offers a valuable primer on Republican extremism – but also progressive achievement
Charles Kaiser 8 Oct 2023
In a media landscape so polluted by politicians addicted to cheap thrills (Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Orange Monster) and the pundits addicted to them (Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Steve Bannon), the success of Heather Cox Richardson is much more than a blast of fresh air. It’s a bona fide miracle.
The Boston College history professor started writing her newsletter, Letters from an American, almost four years ago. Today her daily dose of common sense about the day’s news, wrapped in an elegant package of American history, has a remarkable 1.2 million subscribers, making her the most popular writer on Substack. Not since Edward P Morgan captivated the liberal elite with his nightly 15-minute broadcasts in the 1960s has one pundit been so important to so many progressive Americans at once.
In the age of social media, Richardson’s success is counterintuitive. When she was profiled by Ben Smith in the New York Times a couple of years ago, Smith confessed he was so addicted to Twitter he rarely found the time to open her “rich summaries” of the news. When he told Bill Moyers, one of Richardson’s earliest promoters, the same thing, the great commentator explained: “You live in a world of thunderstorms, and she watches the waves come in.”
Richardson’s latest book shares all the intelligence of her newsletter. It doesn’t have the news value of her internet contributions but it is an excellent primer for anyone who needs the important facts of the last 150 years of American history – and how they got us to the sorry place we inhabit today.
Like other recent books, including The Destructionists by Dana Milbank, Richardson’s new volume reminds us that far from being an outlier, Donald Trump was inevitable after 70 years of Republican pandering to big business, racism and Christian nationalism.
Heather Cox Richardson interviews Joe Biden in 2022.
So many direct lines can be drawn from the dawn of modern conservatism to the insanity of the Freedom Caucus today. It was William F Buckley Jr, the most famous conservative pundit of his era, who in 1951 attacked universities for teaching “secularism and collectivism” and promoted the canard that liberals were basically communists. Among Buckley’s mortal enemies, Richardson writes, were everyone “who believed that the government should regulate business, protect social welfare, promote infrastructure and protect civil rights” – and who “believed in fact-based argument”.
In place of the liberal consensus that emerged with Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, Buckley and his henchmen wanted a new “orthodoxy of religion and the ideology of free markets”. A few years later, the Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater ran on a platform opposing the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Four years after that, Richard Nixon’s Southern Strategy included promises to slow down the desegregation the supreme court had ordered 14 years before.
In one of the most notorious dog whistles of all time, Ronald Reagan began his 1980 presidential campaign by declaring his love for states’ rights in Philadelphia, Mississippi – made infamous by the murders of the civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in 1964.
Since the 1950s, Richardson writes, conservatives have fought to destroy “the active government of the liberal consensus, and since the 1980s, Republican politicians [have] hacked away at it” but still “left much of the government intact”. With Trump’s election in 2016, the nation had finally “put into office a president who would use his power to destroy it”. Republicans fought for 50 years for an “end to business regulation and social services and the taxes they required”. Trump went even further by “making the leap from oligarchy to authoritarianism”.
Richardson is refreshingly direct about the importance of the fascist example to Trump and his Maga movement. When he used the White House to host the Republican convention in 2020, the first lady, Melania Trump, wore a “dress that evoked a Nazi uniform”. And, Richardson writes, the big lie was a “key propaganda tool” for the Nazis, which Hitler himself explained in Mein Kampf, the book Trump may have kept on his night table at Trump Tower (or maybe it was a collection of Hitler’s speeches).
Lyndon B Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965, at the US Capitol in Washington.
Richardson even uses the psychological profile of Hitler by the Office of Strategic Services, the US intelligence agency during the second world war, to remind us of similarities to Trump. The OSS said Hitler’s “primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy … never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong”.
But Richardson’s book isn’t just a recitation of the evil of Republicans. It is also a celebration of progressive successes. She reminds us that before Vietnam ruined his presidency, Lyndon Johnson compiled an incredible record. In one session, Congress passed an astonishing 84 laws. Johnson’s “Great Society” included the Voting Rights Act of 1965; the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which provided federal aid for public schools; launched Head Start for the early education of low-income children; the social security amendments that created Medicare; increased welfare payments; rent subsidies; the Water Quality Act of 1965; and the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
These laws had a measurable impact. “Forty million Americans were poor in 1960”; by 1969, that had dropped to 24 million.
Addressing graduates of the University of Michigan in 1964, Johnson used words that are apt today:“For better or worse, your generation has been appointed by history to … lead America toward a new age … You can help build a society where the demands of morality, and the needs of the spirit, can be realized in the life of the nation.”
Johnson rejected the “timid souls” who believed “we are condemned to a soulless wealth. We have the power to shape the civilization that we want. But we need your will, your labor, your hearts, if we are to build that kind of society.”
'An end of American democracy': Heather Cox Richardson on Trump's historic threat
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/07/american-democracy-heather-cox-richardson-trump-biden
The historian and Substack superstar says the US is in peril not seen since the civil war – and Joe Biden is its best defender
By David Smith in Washington @smithinamerica 7 Oct 2023
Kevin Seefried did what the rebel army never could. On 6 January 2021, the 53-year-old carried a Confederate flag through the US Capitol. For historians of the American civil war such as Heather Cox Richardson, it was like a blow to the solar plexus.
How a ‘Trump train’ attack on a Biden bus foreshadowed January 6 – and echoed bloody history
“The whole point of a civil war was to make sure that battle flag never had influence in the United States Capitol,” she says, via Zoom from near Augusta, Maine. “With a loss of almost $6bn and 600,000 lives, they kept that flag out of the Capitol, and then, I’m sorry, but those fuckers brought it in. I saw that, and the gut-punch was larger than any other moment in history, for me as a historian who has lived that civil war as deeply as I have.”
Richardson, 60, a history professor at Boston College, has been described by the New York Times as “the breakout star” of the newsletter platform Substack, where her Letters from an American has more than a million subscribers. She has 1.7 million followers on Facebook while her bio on X, formerly known as Twitter, says: “Historian. Author. Professor. Budding Curmudgeon. I study the contrast between image and reality in America, especially in politics.”
Readers welcome Richardson’s ability, like Ken Burns, Rachel Maddow and Jon Meacham, to make sense of Trump-era chaos by assuring us we have been here before and survived. She is the cohost of Now & Then, a Vox Media podcast, and author of award-winning books about the civil war, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age and the American west.
Now she offers Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, a thoughtful study of how the world’s wealthiest democracy came to teeter on the precipice of authoritarianism with an assist from Donald Trump. She seems relieved it’s done.
“Writing 1,200 words every day is itself a chore and then to write a book on top of it damn near killed me,” Richardson admits. “The reason for the book originally was to pull together a number of essays answering the questions that everybody asks me all the time – What is the southern strategy? How did the parties switch sides? – but very quickly I came to realise that it was the story of how democracies can be undermined.”
Crucial in that is how history and language can be used to divide a population and convince some the only reason they have fallen behind economically, socially or culturally is because of an enemy. The antidote, Richardson argues, is an explicitly democratic history “based in the idea that marginalised populations have always kept the principles of the Declaration of Independence front and centre in our history”.
She is not pulling punches. Her preface observes that the crisis in American democracy crept up on many and draws a direct comparison with the rise of Adolf Hitler, achieved through political gains and consolidation.
“Democracies die more often through the ballot box than at gunpoint,” she writes.
A Confederate flag flies outside the Senate chamber on January 6. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA
America’s current malaise, she argues, began in the same decade: the 1930s. It was then that Republicans who loathed business regulations in Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal began to consider an alliance with southern Democrats, who found Roosevelt’s programmes insufficiently segregationist, and western Democrats who resented the idea of the federal government protecting land and water. In 1937, this unholy coalition came up with a “Conservative Manifesto”.
Richardson says: “When it gets leaked to the newspapers, they all run like rats from it because the Republicans decide it’s better to fight FDR from the outside than try and work with Democrats, and Democrats don’t want to be criticising their own president. They all disavow it but that manifesto gets reprinted all over the country in pro-business and racist newspapers and pamphlets and it has very long legs.
“They want to get rid of business regulation, they want to get rid of a basic social safety net and send all that back to the churches, they want to get rid of infrastructure projects that FDR is engaging in because they think it costs too much in tax dollars and it should be private investment. They don’t really talk about civil rights because because FDR is really just flirting with the idea of equality in the New Deal programmes but they do say they want home rule and states’ rights, which is code for “We don’t want civil rights.’”
These four principles would become a blueprint for Republicans such as Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, language sometimes mapping directly. In the early 1970s, Richardson contends, Republicans began to pursue anti-democratic strategies such as gerrymandering and shifting the judiciary rightwards. They also spent decades waging an “information war”.
A prime example was the 1998 impeachment of Bill Clinton, an attempt to convince the public he was not a legitimate president.
“That era is when congressional investigations to smear the Democrats take off,” Richardson says. “Those investigations don’t turn up anything but it doesn’t matter because it keeps it in front of the American people – the idea that something is there.”
Enter Trump, a blowhard who turned disinformation into an artform in the business world and become a reality TV star. He promised Christian conservatives he would appoint rightwing judges; he promised fiscal conservatives he would cut taxes; he promised the white working class he understood their resentments. He made the party his own.
Richardson says: “The establishment Republicans played the issue of abortion, played the issue of ‘the Democrats are evil’ to stay in power and enact what was essentially a libertarian destruction of the federal government that had been in place since 1933. But I don’t think that they intended to give up their power. Trump took one look at that and said, ‘I’m going to bypass you and go right around this.’ He could do that because he was such a good salesman and he put in place something very different.
“Trump is an interesting character because he’s not a politician. He’s a salesman and that is an important distinction because in 2016 he held up a mirror to a certain part of the American population, one that had been gutted by the legislation that has passed since 1981, and gave them what they wanted.
“If you remember in 2016, he was the most moderate Republican on that stage on economic issues. He talked about infrastructure, fair taxes, cheaper and better healthcare, bringing back manufacturing. He talked about all those economic issues but then he also had the racism and the sexism and of course that’s what he was really going for, that anger that he could tap into.
“Tapping into that anger was crucial to him forging an authoritarian movement, because at least in the United States the authoritarian rightwing movements have always come from street violence rather than the top and from ideas of what fascism should look like. He quite deliberately tapped into that emotional anger that he could spark with racism and sexism.”
Richardson is again not bashful about invoking the Nazi comparison when she cites the communications scholar Michael Socolow’s observation that Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address, in which he demonstrated that he could “raise hurting individuals up to glory”, mirrored the performances of Hitler, who sought to show an almost magical power to change lives.
Trump’s rise could be described as a triumph of the will. Republican politicians offered little defence.
“If there is one group that infuriates me in all of this, it is the senators,” Richardson says. “The Republican senators could have stopped Trump at any moment and they liked the tax cuts and then they became frightened of his followers. They should have stopped him in 2015, in 2016, in 2017, and they can stop him now and they won’t. I’m so tired of hearing these people saying, ‘Well, we knew he was bad.’ Thank you for that!”
Despite 91 criminal charges, Trump dominates the Republican primary. Polls show him neck-and-neck with Biden. It is looking like a close-run thing. What would a second Trump term mean for America?
“An end of American democracy. I have absolutely no doubt about that, and he’s made it very clear. You look at Project 2025, which is a thousand pages on how you dismantle the federal government that has protected civil rights, provided a basic social safety net, regulated business and promoted infrastructure since 1933. The theme of his 2024 campaign is retribution.
“I don’t think people understand now that, if Donald Trump wins again, what we’re going to put in power is those people who want to burn it all down. By that I mean they want to hurt their enemies for sure but, so long as they can be in control, they don’t care if it means that Nato falls apart or that Americans are starving or dying from pandemic diseases. As long as somebody gets hurt, that’s enough for them.”
Biden understands the threat. Last month in Phoenix, Arizona, he issued another stark warning. The president’s approval rating is anaemic and some Democrats are restless but Richardson casts a historian’s eye on his record.
Joe Biden and Heather Cox Richardson talk in the China Room of the White House, in February 2022. Photograph: World Politics Archive (WPA)/Alamy
“Biden is a fascinating character in that in that he is one of the very few people who could have met this moment. I was not a Biden supporter, to be honest. I thought we needed somebody new and much more aggressive, and yet I completely admit I was wrong because he has, first of all, a very deep understanding of foreign affairs, which I tended to denigrate.
“I thought in 2020 that was not going to matter and could I have been more wrong? I think not. That really mattered and continues to matter in that one of the reasons Republicans are backing off of Ukraine right now is that they recognise, for all that it’s not hitting the United States newspapers, Ukraine is actually making important gains. A win from the Ukrainians would really boost Biden’s re-election and the Republicans recognise that and are willing to scuttle that so long as it means they can regain power here. His foreign affairs understanding has been been key.
“The other thing about Biden is his extraordinary skill at dealmaking has made this domestic administration the most effective since at least the Great Society and probably the New Deal. You think about the fact that Trump could never get infrastructure through Congress, even though everybody wanted it.
“That has been huge but the whole argument behind all that has been he needs to prove that the government can work for people after 40 years in which we had a government that we felt was working against us. That has been a harder and harder case for him to make because the media is not picking that up.
“The question going into 2024 is: will people understand that Biden has created a government that does work for the people? Whether or not you like its policies personally, he is trying to use that government to meet the needs of the people in a way that the Republicans haven’t done since 1981. He is a transformative president. Whether or not it’s going to be enough, we’re going to find out in 14 months.”
Biden, who turns 81 next month, is also the oldest president. Surveys show many Democrats think he is too old. Richardson is not buying.
“He’s older than dirt; they all are. But age is actually a benefit for him. First of all it’s non-threatening to a lot of older white people, and second of all he does have those connections that you just simply don’t have if you’re 40.
“I watch him constantly, I read him constantly, and I have met him and interviewed him. He’s fine mentally. As I get older, when I’m on task, I don’t miss a trick. I’m going to leave to go to the grocery store after this, and the chances are very good I will run into somebody I know quite well and not remember their name. That’s just the way it is.”
Richardson glides between excavations of 19th-century history and a running commentary on the hot political story of the day. On Wednesday, her Substack column was devoted to the ousting of the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy.
She reflects: “One of the things that people like me do is give people firm ground to stand on in a swamp. That is, after years of not being able to tell what is real, to have somebody say, ‘This happened, this happened, this happened and here are citations that you can go to check, and this is how things work,’ is very comforting.
“Maybe that’s just me because when I write I don’t know the answers myself every morning. But when I want to know, for example, what happened in the committee, I actually do the research and say this is what happened so that I can sleep at night feeling like my feet are under me.
“So it’s partly a search for history but it’s also partly a search to feel like you understand the world again, which is hard to do when you’re being bombarded with hearings and lies and all that kind of crap. I actually think that the meaning of it is less about history than it is about returning to a reality based community.”
Black Friday shopping: US President Joe Biden buys a book
Nov 25, 2023,
The traditional "Black Friday" shopping event marked the beginning of the holiday shopping season in the United States, with retailers offering significant discounts to attract customers. This year's event, taking place amid economic uncertainties, saw stores providing even deeper discounts to draw in consumers who have been dealing with persistent inflation and the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Black Friday, shoppers who headed to malls and stores were greeted with a variety of incentives ranging from champagne to virtual reality experiences and traditional doorbuster deals.
These efforts by retailers were aimed at attracting customers who are increasingly cautious about unnecessary spending and impulse purchases this year.
With dwindling savings and rising credit card debts, consumers are feeling the pinch. Despite a slight ease in inflation, the cost of various items, including essentials like meat and housing, remains significantly higher compared to three years ago.
Following "Black Friday," the retail industry is also gearing up for "Cyber Monday," another major sales event aimed at online shoppers.
US President Biden also engaged in Black Friday shopping in Nantucket amidst global attention on the release of hostages by Hamas during a four-day truce in the Gaza Strip. The President, accompanied by his son Hunter Biden, visited a bookstore, adhering to a family tradition. He remarked, “Can’t come without going to the bookstore. We’ve got a tradition.”
Before his shopping spree, Biden addressed the nation about the hostage crisis, expressing uncertainty about the release of up to nine American citizens taken hostage in the October 7 attacks in southern Israel. “We don’t know when that will occur… It is my hope and expectation it will be soon,” Biden said.
Hamas has committed to freeing an additional 26 hostages, totaling 50 out of approximately 240, over the next three days, though the identities of these individuals remain unknown.
According to a report in New York post, Hunter Biden, facing federal gun charges in Delaware and potential tax charges in Los Angeles, joined his father for shopping after dining at the Brotherhood of Thieves restaurant. The Bidens are staying at the home of billionaire David Rubenstein during their vacation.
While shopping, President Biden purchased the book “Democracy Awakening” by historian Heather Cox Richardson. The First Lady, Jill Biden, mentioned to reporters that the family was enjoying their time.
Heather Cox Richardson
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Heather Cox Richardson
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Richardson in 2016
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| Born | 1962 (age 60–61)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
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| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Professor of history at Boston College |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Harvard University (B.A., Ph.D.) |
| Academic advisors | David Herbert Donald and William Gienapp |
Heather Cox Richardson is an American academic historian, author, and educator. She is a professor of history at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians.[1] She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Richardson has authored seven books on history and politics. In 2014, she founded a popular history website, werehistory.org. Between 2017 and 2018, she co-hosted the NPR podcast Freak Out and Carry On.[3] More recently, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American, a nightly newsletter that chronicles current events in the larger context of American history.[4] The newsletter accrued over one million subscribers, making her, as of December 2020, the most successful individual author of a paid publication on Substack.[5] Richardson also co-hosts the podcast Now & Then with fellow historian Joanne B. Freeman.[6] In February 2022, Richardson interviewed U.S. President Joe Biden.
Early life and education
Born in Chicago in 1962 and raised in Maine, Richardson attended Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire.[8][9] She received both her B.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, where she studied under David Herbert Donald and William Gienapp.
Writing career
Richardson interviewing President Joe Biden in February 2022
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The Greatest Nation of the Earth (1997)
Richardson’s first book, The Greatest Nation of the Earth (1997), stemmed from her dissertation at Harvard University. Inspired by Eric Foner’s work on pre-Civil War Republican ideology, Richardson analyzed Republican economic policies during the war. She contended that their efforts to create an activist federal government during the Civil War marked a continuation of Republican free labor ideology. These policies, such as war bonds and greenbacks or the Land Grant College Act and the Homestead Act, revolutionized the role of the federal government in the U.S. economy. At the same time, these actions laid the groundwork for the Republican Party's shift to big business after the Civil War.[10]
According to Professor James L. Huston at Oklahoma State University:
For nineteenth-century political historians, this will be an important book with crucial insights into the nature of the Republican Party. Richardson's attention to political economy offers a refreshing vantage point from which to assess Civil War legislation, and her willingness to delve deeply into economic doctrines is commendable. Not the least of her accomplishments is a more realistic appraisal of the Republicans, revealing their agricultural bias and their distrust of monopoly and hierarchy.... At times, Richardson's discussion of economic principles is insightful and perceptive; at other times the discussion is shallow and requires more refinement.[11]
The Death of Reconstruction (2001)[edit]
Four years later, Richardson extended her study of Republican policy into the postwar period with The Death of Reconstruction (2001).[12] Unlike other historians, she focused her analysis of the period on the "Northern abandonment of Reconstruction". Building on the earlier work of C. Vann Woodward, she argued that a more complete understanding of the period required appreciation of class, not only race. As Reconstruction continued into the 1870s and especially the 1880s, Republicans began to view African Americans in the South more from a class perspective and less from the perspective of race that had driven their earlier humanitarianism. In the midst of the labor struggles of the Gilded Age, Republicans came to compare "the demands of the ex-slaves for land, social services, and civil rights" to the demands of white laborers in the North. This ideological shift was the key to Republican abandonment of Reconstruction, as they chose the protection of their economic and business interests over their desire for racial equality.
According to Professor Michael W. Fitzgerald, at St. Olaf College:
"The Death of Reconstruction" is an important book on a big topic. It offers a full-scale reinterpretation of the great betrayal of the Civil War's egalitarian legacy, the northern public's abandonment of the freedpeople. If the book is not uniformly persuasive, that partially reflects the scope of its ambition.[13]
West from Appomattox (2007)[edit]
In West from Appomattox: The Reconstruction of America after the Civil War (2007), Richardson presented Reconstruction as a national event that affected all Americans, not just those in the South.[8] She incorporated the West into the discussion of Reconstruction as no predecessor had. Between 1865 and 1900, Americans re-imagined the role of the federal government, calling upon it to promote the well-being of its citizens. However, racism, sexism, and greed divided Americans, and the same people who increasingly benefited from government intervention—white, middle-class Americans—actively excluded African-Americans, Native Americans, immigrants, and organized laborers from the newfound bounties of their reconstructed nation.[14]
Wounded Knee (2010)[edit]
Wounded Knee: Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre (2010), focused on the U.S. Army's slaughter of Native Americans in South Dakota in 1890.[15] She argued that party politics and opportunism led to the Wounded Knee Massacre. After a bruising midterm election, President Benjamin Harrison needed to shore up his support. To do so, he turned to The Dakotas, where he replaced seasoned Indian agents with unqualified political allies, who incorrectly assumed that the Ghost Dance Movement presaged war. In order to avoid spending cuts from Congress, the army responded by sending one-third of its force. After the event, Republicans tried to paint the massacre as a heroic battle to stifle the resurgent Democrats.
To Make Men Free (2014)[edit]
In To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party (2014), Richardson extended her study of the Republican Party into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.[16] This book studied the entire life of the Republican Party, from its inception in the 1850s through the presidency of George W. Bush.[17] Believing a small group of men who controlled all three branches of government were turning the country into a slavocracy, the party’s founders united against "slave power". These Republicans articulated a new vision of an America in which all hardworking men could rise. But after the Civil War, Republicans began to emulate what they originally opposed. They tied themselves to powerful bankers and industrialists, sacrificing the well-being of ordinary Americans. A similar process took place after World War II, when Republicans sought to dismantle successful New Deal policies and prop up the wealthy. However, in both cases, reformers within the party were able to return the party to its founding vision of equality of opportunity, first Theodore Roosevelt during the Progressive Era, and then Dwight D. Eisenhower, who enforced integration and maintained the New Deal.
The Nixon and Reagan administrations represented yet another fall from the party's founding purpose. It is ironic, Richardson points out, that Republicans treated Barack Obama with an unprecedented level of disrespect, as Obama's rise from humble beginnings to the highest office in the nation embodied the vision of the original Republicans. In a new afterword, Richardson also points out the irony of one of the rioters storming the Capitol carrying the Confederate flag on January 6, 2021, despite the Republican Party starting in the 1850s as a popular movement against the men who would lead the Confederate States of America.
Newsletter (2019 — )[edit]
In September 2019, Richardson began writing a daily synopsis of political events associated with the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. Originally posting late every evening or in the early hours of the next day on her Facebook page, Richardson later moved to add a newsletter format, entitled "Letters from an American", published via Substack.[4] The newsletter deals with contemporary events she explicates and relates to historical developments.
The newsletter became popular because of her calm voice, with straightforward explanations of the news of the day. As of December 2020, Richardson was "the most successful individual author of a paid publication on... Substack" and on track to bring in a million dollars of revenue a year.[5] The newsletter received a "Best of Boston" award for "2021 Best Pandemic Newsletter" from Boston magazine.[18]
How the South Won the Civil War (2020)[edit]
In How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America (2020), Richardson argued that America was founded with contradicting ideals, with the ideas of liberty, equality, and opportunity on one hand, and slavery and hierarchy on the other. United States victory in the American Civil War should have settled that tension forever, but at the same time that the Civil War was fought, Americans also started moving into the West. In the West, Americans found, and expanded upon, deep racial hierarchies, meaning that hierarchical values survived in American politics and culture despite the crushing defeat of the pro-slavery Confederacy. Those traditions—a rejection of democracy, an embrace of entrenched wealth, the marginalization of women and people of color—have found a home in modern conservative politics, leaving the promise of America unfulfilled. Professor Dana Elizabeth Weiner of Wilfrid Laurier University states:
With this beautifully written book, prominent US historian Heather Cox Richardson offers valuable insights to historians and general readers about the tenacity of oligarchy in American politics since the seventeenth century.[19]
Deborah M. Liles, a professor at Tarleton State University states:
Heather Cox Richardson's skill with connecting events into a cohesive narrative is on full display in this brilliant study....she dismantles the concept of equality guaranteed in the Constitution, connects western ideology with that of the Old South, and demonstrates how oligarchs and those who supported them established restrictions within society to retain their power.[20]
Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America (2023)[edit]
In 2023, Richardson published her seventh book, entitled Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America that she characterized as having grown from writings she began in 2019 and subsequent interactions with her readers.[21] Those writings deal with discussion of contemporary events Richardson relates to historical developments and that were moved from postings on Facebook to her newsletter entitled "Letters from an American" and published, almost daily, on Substack.
Personal life[edit]
In September 2022 she married Buddy Poland,[22] a Maine lobsterman.[23]
Richardson has described herself as being a Lincoln Republican, and having no affiliation with any political party.[24][25]
Awards and honors[edit]
Works[edit]
- The Greatest Nation of the Earth: Republican Economic Policies during the Civil War (Harvard University Press, 1997) ISBN 978-0-674-36213-0
- The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901 (Harvard University Press, 2001) ISBN 978-0-674-01366-7
- "A Marshall Plan for the South?: The Failure of Republican and Democratic Ideology during Reconstruction." Civil War History 51.4 (2005): 378-387. online
- West from Appomattox: The Reconstruction of America after the Civil War (Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 978-0-300-13630-2
- "Abraham Lincoln and the Politics of Principle." Marquette Law Review 93 (2009): 1383+ online.
- Wounded Knee: Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre (Basic Books, 2010) ISBN 978-1-4587-6014-2
- To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party (Basic Books, 2014) ISBN 978-0-465-02431-5
- How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America (Oxford University Press, 2020) ISBN 978-0-19-090091-5
- Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America (Viking, 2023) ISBN 978-0-593-65296-1
