Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America

Award-winning Author and Historian Heather Cox Richardson reminds us that the past doesn’t repeat itself; it rhymes. To understand today’s political landscape, you must understand how we got here. In 2019, Richardson began publishing Letters from an American on Substack–which expertly offered forthright historical background in the face of an unrelenting news cycle. She quickly garnered over one million subscribers, making her one of the most successful authors on the platform. This series, in addition to her interactions with readers, helped inform her latest book, Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America.

Democracy is not a static institution but a living, evolving process that requires constant vigilance and participation from all of us. At a time when the very foundations of democracy seem under threat, how can the lessons of the past offer a roadmap for navigating a moment of political crisis? And what should we pay attention to, and what possible paths lie ahead?

Richardson is a Professor of History at Boston College. She has written about the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, and the American West in award-winning books whose subjects stretch from the European settlement of the North American continent to the history of the Republican Party through the Trump administration.

Join us at the City Club as Katie Paris, Founder of Red Wine and Blue leads a conversation with Heather Cox Richardson on how we, as a nation, can take the lessons of the past to address today’s challenges and secure a more just and equitable future.