HEATHER COX RICHARDSON is the author of Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America (Viking). A professor of history at Boston College and an expert in 19th-century America specializing in politics and economics, she is the author of the newsletter Letters from an American. Richardson’s previous books include How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America. She co-hosts the podcast Now and Then with Joanne Freeman.