Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America by Heather Cox Richardson

Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America Reviews

• 
  Betsy Robinson

  In Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, historian and “people’s teacher” (via her social media and newsletters) Heather Cox Richardson has created a sweeping connect-the-dots history of how we got to where we are now. Where we are now—grappling between remaining a democracy or becoming an authoritarian country—has long roots, and in Parts 1 and 2, she starts at the beginning of American history and follows those roots into global history (mostly chronologically, but when she backtracks—specifically tracing the Nazi rally in Charlottesville, VA, back to its historical beginning—it is organic and easy to follow). Once we advance into the events of the last few years, people who follow the news will already be fully informed, but this is a book that will stand as a valuable history for future readers, so it is great to have all this documented in story form.
  
  I cannot possibly reduce this work (or even retain as much as I’d like—this is a book to read multiple times), so suffice it to say: it is readable, fast, understandable, and rather than throwing in absolutely every detail as a lot of historians do, she opts to tell a specific American story efficiently: the story of American democracy—a belief that all people should have equal rights and have a government by their consent.
  
  Because I’m interested in why people are so vulnerable to manipulation, power-greediness, and a herd-like compulsion to move with others even when doing so makes no sense and undermines democracy, I was particularly struck the very first time I read about a nonsense statement that split people into warring cultures:
  

  [In 1971] Phyllis Schlafly said: “Women’s lib is a total assault on the role of the American woman as wife and mother and on the family as the basic unit of society. Women’s libbers are trying to make wives and mothers unhappy with their career. . . .” (pg. # NA)

  
  This kind of statement, assuming that if anybody gets something (or said another way, if everybody gets equal rights), somebody else must lose something, is key to Movement Conservatism (creating rifts between oneself and others who are deemed “bad”) that Cox traces back to 1937. And it is key to the intentional attempt to destroy civil society, establish chaos—which most people will do anything to stop—and thereby lay the foundation for people’s desire for a “strong man” to make it stop, evoking authoritarianism and extinguishing democracy.
  
  You could plug into this kind of “this causes that hurt/loss” statement any number of things: true history that includes our racist roots; the right to decide what we do with our bodies; climate change causes; etc. This critical false equivalence (lie), I believe, can only be combatted if people decide to think—use common sense—rather than react in fear of chaos. And common sense is a real possibility: In Part 3 of this book, Cox writes about how powerful common sense was in moving us to independence: Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense rejected the idea that any man could be born to rule others and called “ridiculous” the notion that an island should rule a continent. “Paine’s spark set to flame more than a decade of accumulating timber,” writes Cox, leading to declarations of independence. The real revolution Americans experienced was in thinking rather than fighting.
  
  Here’s my common sense: It is absolute nonsense that women having equal pay and rights could hurt marriages. How? Women who want to be homemakers will not be forced to work. Teaching true history will not hurt white people; I and most white people I know will grapple with questions about our own commitment to what’s right and would we have been strong enough to act as an abolitionist? I don’t know anybody who identifies with slave-holders. If somebody does not want to accept equality and history of inequality, they don’t have to, but true history can still be taught in schools. If somebody doesn’t support the right to body autonomy for themselves, they don’t have to; nobody will ever force them to have an abortion and if they don’t want to make their own medical decisions, they can find some authority to hand responsibility over to. If somebody does not accept that our actions are destroying the earth, they are free to believe that. Yes, pollution regulation will change lives, but I wager that anybody who wants to pollute their home will still be able to do so. Nobody will have to love people they don’t love if others have the right to love who they love. You don’t have to believe what you don’t believe.
  
  There is no loss for anybody if more people do better by telling the truth and having equal rights. The whole notion of consequent loss is nuts!
  
  And it is on this belief in false equivalencies that this book’s history relies. As Cox writes about Trump’s attack on the Mueller investigation: “if he could get Americans to reject the truth and accept his lies about what had happened, they would be psychologically committed to him.” And this commitment has been expertly cultivated by a string of calculated lies, starting with something as seemingly stupid as inauguration crowd size, all the way up to saying a coup where people were killed and terrorized didn’t happen and insisting an election was stolen in the face of 60 courts and a Republican Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the United States Department of Homeland Security declaring there was no election fraud.
  
  During Trump’s impeachment hearings over obstruction of justice and using the power of the presidency to try to steal an election, the Republicans used their majority to acquit, but Cox writes, “. . . the forty-eight senators who voted to convict Trump represented eighteen million more Americans than the fifty-two Republicans who voted to acquit. It was increasingly obvious that a minority was gaming the system against the majority and that their only hope of retaining power was to repress that majority. (pg. # NA)”
  
  This is where we are. But Heather Cox Richardson doesn’t leave us there.
  
  Part 3: Reclaiming America begins with a rousing question about whether equality and government by consent is even possible, and ends with a fanfare of all the marginalized individuals who believe in and fight for a more perfect union. It is community, she points out, that is the real backbone of this country: rather than lone cowboys riding the range, it was the barn-raising communities and everybody working together to make life possible. “Working together, across racial lines, ethnic lines, gender lines, and age lines, was what enabled people to defend their rights against a small group of elites determined to keep control of the country. (p. # NA)” This feels like an infusion of oxygen after the dire history in the first half of the book. And I welcomed beginning American history anew in this section, including not only white male founders, but everyone who was here, enumerating their accomplishments and participation in education and innovation, and above all, making vivid their fervid belief that with hard work, they could have the American dream—a belief that was and remains steadfast, despite the concurrent history of denial of their equal rights.
  
  Now is not the first time our democracy has been in a fight for its life. In 1863, Cox writes, “. . . Americans had woken up. They realized that the very nature of America was under attack. They were divided among themselves [over slavery] and at first they didn’t really know how to fight back, but ordinary people quickly came to pitch in however they could. . . . Once awake, they found the strength of their majority. (p. #NA)”
  
  I believe most of us want a democracy. I believe we are a huge majority—as proved by the 7 million more voters who voted to preserve it rather than support an autocrat in the last election. All that is required to preserve democracy is for the majority to wake up, use common sense, and refuse to mindlessly allow our freedom to be stolen by those who wish to divide us into warring factions based on bogus zero-sum concepts. Heather Cox Richardson has certainly done her part to sound an alarm clock.
  
  ***
  
  I received a free advance reading copy of this book from
  Penguin Random House. Publication is September 26, 2023.
  
  
  
• 
  Thomas Ray

  Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, Heather Cox Richardson, 2023, 286 pages, ISBN 9780593652961, Dewey 320.473
  
  Outstanding history of the past few decades of U.S. politics. Focuses on Trump and the danger of authoritarianism. Recaps U.S. history to show that authoritarianism isn't us.
  
  Richardson sees Republicans in black hats, Democrats in white.
  
  But, Democrats are also eager to take no meaningful action on climate change; to take military action provoking enmity; to serve concentrated wealth. [See Noam Chomsky, What Uncle Sam Really Wants, 1992,
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ]
  
  Except on judicial appointments. The six Republican appointees on the Supreme Court are terrorists; the three Democratic appointees are comparatively reasonable. [See Justice on the Brink, Linda Greenhouse, 2021,
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ]
  
  
  Authoritarians rise when members of a formerly powerful group feel they've been left behind. p. xii. [See Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1968,
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ]
  
  Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters. --Grover Cleveland, 1889. p. 223, chapter 28. Wall Street owns the country. --Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1890. p. 224. Businessmen had bought and paid for politicians and the media to concentrate the nation's wealth in their own hands. p. 226. [See Origins of the Federal Reserve System: Money, Class, and Corporate Capitalism, 1890–1913, James Livingston, 1986:
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ]
  
  The effective top federal income tax rate under Eisenhower was 70%. [See Dark Money, Jane Mayer, 2016,
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... , and A Brief History of Equality, Thomas Piketty, 2022,
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ]
  
  
  
  
  Richardson on vote suppression:
  https://heathercoxrichardson.substack...
  documented.net article:
  https://documented.net/reporting/righ...
  and in The Guardian:
  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2...
  
  Heather Cox Richardson writes a wonderful summary of today's news (she's been posting at about 2am Chicago time every day; about once a week she takes a day off: "Today was an absolutely perfect July day and I'm not going to ruin it by looking at the news."--
  https://heathercoxrichardson.substack... )
  at
  
  https://heathercoxrichardson.substack...
  Except, bizarrely, she doesn't know that the Clinton-Clinton-Obama-Biden-Harris party /always/ serves the investor class, to our cost. Biden forced Mexico to consume Monsanto genetically-modified corn: (English & Spanish:
  https://www.jornada.com.mx/notas/2023... ). Clinton quietly sent bankers to arrange world trade deals that race to the bottom in environmental and worker protections, to enrich bankers and multinationals. Clinton quietly exploded the prison population. Obama quietly took /no/ action on climate change, quietly rolled out a lobbyist-written medical-insurance plan that authorizes insurers to charge us 25% more than they pay providers: they're on cost-plus, for the first time ever. Obama quietly amplified the Asian wars, and vastly expanded drone warfare. Obama quietly bailed out Wall Street and left the rest of us to fend for ourselves. We can have Wall Street's left-hand puppet quietly serving up the world to the rich, saying, "yes we can!" or, "I'm the change agent!" Or we can have Wall Street's right-hand puppet doing the exact same things, loudly railing against "illegals," "socialists," "liberals", "Eurocrats." To read Heather Cox Richardson, that choice is enough. It is not. Democrats have proven they will do nothing to curb climate change, will not tax the rich, will continue to enact lobbyist-written laws they haven't read. Sure, Republicans are even worse. Democrats do not deserve the free pass Richardson gives them, merely for not being Republicans.
  
  
  
  Even FDR, who did more than any other president to make the playing field between the rich and the rest of us less vertical, did so largely by using our Pacific fleet to prevent fuel from entering Japan, to force Japan to go to war with us, so U.S. corporations, not Japan, would control the former European Pacific and Southeast Asian colonies.
  
  Here's Heather Cox Richardson's post on the first labor day:
  https://heathercoxrichardson.substack...
  
  On voter intimidation:
  
  https://heathercoxrichardson.substack...
  
  
  
• 
  Laura

  I won this book through a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for choosing me!
  
  This book should be mandatory reading for every single person living in America. It should be talked about. It should be in every single library and bookstore accessible to everyone. Heather Cox Richardson gives us a lot of information, and she is able to present it in chapters that aren't excessively long or tedious. Although she covers a wide range of our history (which can sometimes be difficult or confusing to do), she manages to keep it interesting, and the flow of her writing is easy to follow to the very end.
  
  It is a book that deserves to be in the spotlight.
• 
  Cheryl

  I have tremendous respect for Heather Cox Richardson. Daily she shares the truth about United States history and current events in her newsletter. I appreciate not only her telling of history but also that she provides references for all of her main points.
  
  Now onto her new book, Democracy Awakening: It is a great, relatively short read of American democracy since it’s inception up to current day. Like her newsletter, the writing is a simple telling of facts. She isn’t a historian who weaves history into a story. She simply puts the key facts on the page.
  
  If you would appreciate an honest telling of the history of American democracy, and you want it in a concise but readable and interesting format, this is your book! I learned a great deal about the history of American democracy from this book.
• 
  Luke Johnson

  Does America know what a treasure it has in Professor Richardson? While the answer is a whole-hearted "YES!" for many, I still worry that so many do not. Following the advice of one of my aunts, I first started reading HCR's near nightly political recaps shortly after the murder of George Floyd in late May of 2020. Her expert knowledge of both modern and historical American politics got me through the last years of the Trump presidency, as well as into the present day.
  
  So while the book is not perfect (it starts with Reconstruction, the author's area of expertise, and then travels up to the present day. Then, goes back to Colonial America and comes forward again) it should be highly lauded for how clearly and concisely it brings America's slide into authortarianism into focus. We're talking FDR's The New Deal into Eisenhower's The Middle Path into Civil Rights legislation and then the downward slide as politicians began gaining votes by stoking a fear of "the other". A country that was once a great melting pot began to fear the mixing of races, sexual orientations, religions, and more. The desire for the "good ole days" became paramount, when in truth, those days never really existed or at least as so rose colored as they do in our memories. I would have liked it if HCR had talked a little more about organized religions role in all of this fear- and hate-mongering but I do understand that isn't her area of academic expertise, and should instead perhaps congratulate her, for sticking to the areas she knows best.
  
  If you're a nightly reader of her posts or of her political talks and youtube histories, much of this book will ring a bell for you. Yet, there is still so much to be learned and to be reminded of. Thank you Professor, for writing such a easily accessible and concise lay out of the triumphs America has accomplished as well as being a watchtower for the Fascist and Authoritarian flames that seem to creeping up on us once again.
• 
  Connie Ciampanelli

  So far, the hopes of our Founders have never been proven fully right. And yet they have not been proven fully wrong.
  Once again, we are at a time of testing.
  How it comes out rests, as it always has, in our own hands.
  
  For regular readers of Heather Cox Richardson, there is much that is familiar in her newest book, Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, but it is good, indeed, to have our recent history, and its connection to our national past, distilled as it is here, in her trademark clear, uncluttered language. An overview of how our nation arrived at this moment, it invites further, deeper study of our country's complex, complicated, and often divisive history.
  
  Heather Cox Richardson, professor of history at Boston College, daily writer since September, 2019 of "Letters From an American," brilliant yet always accessible, is a national treasure. So is this book.
  
  A must read. A must have.
• 
  Jeff J.

  The author argues that America slowly descended from democracy to autocracy until the election of Biden reversed the trend. She conveniently overlooks the cults of personality around Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton, or the dramatic rise of the administrative state under President Obama (which was largely rolled back by the Trump Presidency). Her allegations of gaslighting by Donald Trump have some merit, although this book as a whole is the strongest example of gaslighting and cherry-picking I’ve read. Her praise for the actions of the Biden administration shows she is not immune from blindly following a charismatic leader.
• 
  Tom DeMarco

  What does it mean to be an American? It’s hard to come up with a better statement of American value than the words of the Declaration:
  

  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

  
  But if we’ve learned anything in the two-and-a-half centuries since the Declaration, it’s that those very truths have been anything but self-evident to a substantial portion of our population. In her most recent book, Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, historian Heather Cox Richardson examines the recurring anti-democratic movements that are with us today and have been ever since our nation’s beginning.
  
  While most Americans believe that equality before the law is our most essential principle, there have always been dissenters. The dissenters have little respect for Lincoln’s notion of “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” They would rather give us government of the few, by the few, and for the few.
  
  An early example from the book is a 19th-century statement from South Carolina Senator James Henry Hammond: “I repudiate as ridiculously absurd that much lauded but nowhere accredited dogma of Mr. Jefferson that ‘all men are born equal.’” A more recent example comes from the 20th-century arch-conservative Paul Weyrich: “I don’t want everybody to vote. …As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”
  
  The backlash against democracy has invariably taken the form of voter suppression. Over the years, schemes have ranged from outright denial of citizenship to gerrymandering, to poll taxes, to literacy tests, to fewer polling places in poor districts, to midweek election days, and to lynchings, beatings, and scare tactics.
  
  The character of the “few” who have asserted their right to govern regardless of the will of the governed has also varied. Sometimes it has been based on race, other times on religion, or gender, or national origin, or political leaning, or education, or property. In almost all cases, there was some degree of dishonest rationalization: It wasn’t really about voter suppression, the adherents would assure us, but about God’s will, or economic realities, or national security, or . . . almost any excuse will do.
  
  Professor Richardson has given us a capsule history of the American experiment, written with a sharp eye for our recurrent flirtation with the different forms of government of the few. Much of what she has written is familiar: we all knew, for example, that slavery was our original sin, that Jim Crow was inherently unjust, that gerrymandering was and is a blatant abuse of power. Her unique perspective is to ascribe all these effects to a common anti-democratic impulse, and to show how persistent that impulse has been and how much damage it has inflicted on our nation.
  
  She also describes the cyclical nature of the anti-democratic backlash, sometimes going quiet for long periods when government of the people felt strong and secure, and then coming back to try again. Our current period, she tells us, is in the midst of an anti-democratic swing. And, finally, she counters the economic argument for government of the few (the idea that a broad electorate is sure to make us economically weak) by showing that the periods when we have best achieved our egalitarian/democratic ideals were also periods of great economic strength and national unity. Since both of those are in short supply today, this new work from Heather Cox Richardson is particularly timely.
  
  Review by Tom DeMarco
  Camden, Maine
• 
  Ann Friedman

  I am a long time follower of Dr. Richardson's blog and read her previous book (How the South Won the Civil War)
  I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it gave historical context to today's political mess. Unlike many politically based books it left me feeling hope for our democracy/future.
  It is time that we say ENOUGH!
  It is unfortunate that the people who need to read this book never will. If they do they will never believe it; their egos won't let them believe the fact they have been taken in by a con man (a point made in the book also)
• 
  Colleen

  HCR is a national treasure and this book should be required reading for all Americans. As a long-time reader of her daily newsletters, nothing in these pages came as a surprise. But having the thread that she’s been following for years, which shows the historical precedent for the rise of authoritarianism in the US, distilled so perfectly into this relatively slim volume still made for compelling reading. It’s both comforting and distressing to know that we as a country have been here before, and that we are our own best hope.
• 
  Laurie Bartels

  I have been reading her Letters from an American for several years. This book, written by a brilliant professor of history, whose area of expertise is political and economic history, explains how our country has gotten where it is today. The book is terrifying at times, yet ends on an optimistic note. Dr. Richardson writes in a way that is easy to understand for people not steeped in political history. I believe everyone should read this book.
• 
  Stephen Spencer

  An excellent book, in Richardson’s usual clear and compelling prose. Many familiar elements for readers of her nightly letter, but fashioned into a single persuasive argument with many additions as well. It is what we have been expectantly awaiting. May it find a wide and responsive readership.
• 
  Susan

  Book is "on hold" at my nearest library. I'll write a review after reading it.
• 
  Dick Peller

  How I wish this were required reading for our high school students. Professor Richardson is a brilliant historian and a national treasure.
• 
  Patricia

  A thoroughly engaging and important portrait of the struggles of our nation to live up to our Declaration of Independence and the values of equality for all people, responsibility for our communities and each other, and of the forces of those who aim for an authoritarian and undemocratic control of our nation.
• 
  Gene

  Best book I’ve read this year! You should read it too.
• 
  Sharon

  My AudioFile review:
  
  DEMOCRACY AWAKENING
  Notes on the State of America
  by Heather Cox Richardson | Read by Heather Cox Richardson
  Contemporary Culture • 8.5 hrs. • Unabridged • © 2023
  
  Political historian Heather Cox Richardson, who is unabashedly pro-democracy and anti-authoritarianism, and known to many from her daily "Letters from an American" newsletter, narrates with energy and a clear, well-paced style. Her performance complements the hallmark way she lays out historical facts. In this book she describes how American democracy has been shaped from its birth through the authoritarianism of the Trump administration and President Biden's attempt to right the ship of state. Richardson's appealing voice, adept nonfiction cadence, and understated presentation propel the text, making it easy for listeners to appreciate the many facts and dates that range from 1776 to 2023. At the end, Richardson reminds us that democracy is ultimately in our hands. S.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2023]
  
  Trade Ed. • Penguin Audio • 2023
  DD ISBN 9780593789476 $22.50
  
  Library Ed. • Books on Tape • 2023
• 
  Vicki

  What can I say? I read Dr. Richardson’s letter daily and she has documented the Trump era faithfully and unbiased. This is a factual and scary testament of what has happened to a party that put its faith into a “false prophet” and has truly lost its way. She doesn’t play politics - she writes about facts. There are no lies here. Read this and know what we are fighting for for democracy. Also, take note and speak up and speak out when falsehoods are sounded. Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to have an ARC of my favorite historian! Much appreciated! ❤️
  
• 
  Daria

  Thanks to Goodreads for the ARC. Excellent overview of how the United States slowly expanded democratic principles to all Americans and the backlash against that expansion.
• 
  Caleb Bedford

  About as unbiased as it gets these days. Richardson explores the country’s political history, from the very beginning to the present, by pointing consistently back to the constitution, both its positives and negatives. Incredibly, she manages to do it all in a concise 253 pages (not counting the indexes). This is a book that all Americans today would benefit from reading. She does not take a side, she simply puts the facts and the history out for us to see.
  
  Thanks to Viking for the advanced copy. My views are my own and have not been influenced in any way.