Heather Cox Richardson on American Democracy

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Amid the recent turmoil and polarization in U.S. politics, historian Heather Cox Richardson gained fame for her immensely popular Substack, “Letters from an American.” Richardson has long grappled with questions of how democracy has weakened in the United States and how its citizenry can try to take back control. That topic is the focus of her new book, Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America.

How can understanding history help us chart a better path for the future? What does the United States need to do to safeguard its democracy? Are there lessons there for the world?

To answer those questions and more, Richardson joined FP’s Ravi Agrawal for a wide-ranging discussion.

Video clips from this event

  • Historian Heather Cox Richardson explains why the New Deal plays such an important role in her new book, Democracy Awakening, and in U.S. political history to this day.

  • Substack writer and historian Heather Cox Richardson explains how U.S. democracy currently faces a unique and new moment in the country’s history.

  • Heather Cox Richardson answers FP subscriber questions about the current iteration of the Republican Party.

  • Watch Heather Cox Richardson explain how she views Joe Biden’s presidency and why she finds some of his policies to be transformative.

  • FP’s Ravi Agrawal and historian Heather Cox Richardson discuss how the Biden administration has stopped describing the world order as a grand battle between democracies and autocracies. Watch Richardson offer her take on the Biden administration’s foreign policy in both Africa and the global south.

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