An Evening with Heather Cox Richardson and Tom Nichols

Heather Cox Richardson is 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. She is the author, most recently, of the bestselling Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America. Jane Mayer has called the book “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.” Heather Richardson’s work has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and The Guardian, among other outlets. Her nightly newsletter, Letters from an American, reaches over a million readers.

At a time when the very foundations of democracy seem under threat, the lessons of the past offer a roadmap for navigating a moment of political crisis. In Democracy Awakening, acclaimed historian Heather Cox Richardson delves into the tumultuous journey of American democracy, revealing how the roots of Donald Trump’s “authoritarian experiment” can be traced back through the earliest days of the republic. She examines the historical forces that have led to the current political climate, showing how modern conservatism has preyed upon a disaffected population, weaponizing language and promoting false history to consolidate power.

With remarkable clarity and the same accessible voice that brings millions of readers to her newsletter, Letters from an American, Richardson wrangles a chaotic news feed into a coherent story that singles out what we should pay attention to and what possible paths lie ahead. Her command of history and trademark plainspoken prose allow her to pivot effortlessly from the Founders to the abolitionists to Reconstruction to Nixon to the January 6 insurrection, highlighting the political legacies of the New Deal, the lingering fears of socialism, the death of the liberal consensus, and the birth of “movement conservatism.”

An essential read for anyone concerned about the state of America, Democracy Awakening is more than a history book; it’s a call to action. Richardson reminds us that democracy is not a static institution but a living, evolving process that requires constant vigilance and participation from all of us. This powerful testament to the resilience of democratic ideals shows 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.

Tom Nichols is a bestselling author and staff writer at The Atlantic. A professor emeritus of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, he has expertise on a range of foreign policy issues including Russia, nuclear weapons, and the role of war in international affairs. Confidently contrarian, Nichols is renowned for his commentary on political issues, the decline of modern society, and threats to democracy at home and abroad. He writes The Atlantic Daily newsletter, guiding readers through the biggest news, ideas, and cultural happenings of the day. Tom’s most well-known book, The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters, examines the collapse of trust in experts and the increase in attacks against science and learning from a public that thinks it knows as much as experts. He makes the case that this false egalitarianism is dangerous to democracy. The book, which has been published in fifteen languages, was deemed “a sweeping indictment of the deliberate, widespread and ultimately self-destructive devaluing of knowledge in America” by POLITICO. In April 2024, Nichols returns with The Death of Expertise, Second Edition, featuring updated evidence including the COVID pandemic to prove that the assault on expertise has only intensified in the seven years since the original publication.

In Our Own Worst Enemy, Tom examines the decline of democracy and the rise of illiberal, anti-democratic movements in the United States and elsewhere. He challenges voters in the democracies to recognize how they themselves, after years of peace and prosperity, have endangered their own system of government with their own lack of civic involvement, their sense of entitlement, and their unwillingness to support basic values such as the rule of law and the equality of others. Publisher’s Weekly called it “a searing critique of contemporary political culture and the rise of illiberalism on both the right and the left.”