Democracy awakening : notes on the state of America

Title:

Author:

Summary:

In the midst of the impeachment crisis of 2019, Heather Cox Richardson launched a daily Facebook essay providing the historical background of the daily torrent of news. It soon turned into a newsletter and its readership ballooned to more than 2 million dedicated readers who rely on her plainspoken and informed take on the present and past in America. In Democracy Awakening, Richardson crafts a compelling and original narrative, explaining how, over the decades, a small group of wealthy people have made war on American ideals. By weaponizing language and promoting false history they have led us into authoritarianism -- creating a disaffected population and then promising to recreate an imagined past where those people could feel important again. She argues that taking our country back starts by remembering the elements of the nation’s true history that marginalized Americans have always upheld. Their dedication to the principles on which this nation was founded has enabled us to renew and expand our commitment to democracy in the past. Richardson sees this history as a roadmap for the nation’s future. Richardson’s talent is to wrangle our giant, meandering, and confusing news feed into a coherent story that singles out what we should pay attention to, what the precedents are, and what possible paths lie ahead. In her trademark calm prose, she is realistic and optimistic about the future of democracy. Her command of history allows her to pivot effortlessly from the Founders to the abolitionists to Reconstruction to Goldwater to Mitch McConnell, highlighting the political legacies of the New Deal, the lingering fears of socialism, the death of the liberal consensus and birth of “movement conservatism.” Many books tell us what has happened over the last five years. Democracy Awakening explains how we got to this perilous point, what our history really tells us about ourselves, and what the future of democracy can be. -- Amazon.

General Note:

Place of publication from publisher's website.

Edition:

First edition.

Contents:

Foreword -- Part 1: Undermining democracy. American conservatism -- The liberal consensus -- Bringing the Declaration of Independence to life -- Race and taxes -- Nixon and the southern strategy -- Positive polarization -- The Reagan revolution -- Skewing the system -- A new global project -- Illegitimate democracy -- Part 2: The authoritarian experiment. A snapshot of America -- A shocking event -- Russia, Russia, Russia -- The streets of Charlottesville -- The first impeachment -- Destabilizing the government -- Embracing authoritarianism -- Rewriting American history -- January 6 -- The big lie -- Part 3: Reclaiming America. What is America? -- Declaring independence -- The Constitution -- Expanding democracy -- Mudsills or men -- Of the people, by the people, for the people -- American renewed -- A progressive America -- The road to the New Deal -- Democracy awakening -- Conclusion: Reclaiming our country.

Physical Description:

xvii, 286 pages ; 24 cm

Subject Term:

Democracy -- History.

Elite (Social sciences)

Rich people -- Political activity.

Common fallacies.

Conspiracies.

Authoritarianism -- History.

Geographic Term:

United States -- History -- Errors, inventions, etc.

Publisher:

Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC,

Publication Date:

2023

ISBN:

9780593652961

Publication Information:

[New York, New York] : Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, [2023]

Call Number:

320.473 RICHARDSON

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003674366	New Adult Nonfiction	320.473 RICHARDSON	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

In the midst of the impeachment crisis of 2019, Heather Cox Richardson launched a daily Facebook essay providing the historical background of the daily torrent of news. The essays soon turned into a newsletter and, spread by word of mouth, its readership ballooned to more than 2 million dedicated readers who rely on its plainspoken and informed take on the present and past in America. In Democracy Awakening, Richardson crafts a compelling and original narrative, explaining how, over the decades, a small group of wealthy people have made war on American ideals. By weaponizing language and promoting false history they have led us into authoritarianism - creating a disaffected population and then promising to recreate an imagined past where those people could feel important again. She argues that taking our country back starts by remembering the elements of the nation's true history that marginalized Americans have always upheld. Their dedication to the principles on which this nation wa

Author Notes

Heather Cox Richardson is a professor of history at Boston College and an expert on American political and economic history. She is the author of seven books, including the award-winning How the South Won the Civil War . Her work has appeared in The Washington Post , The New York Times , and The Guardian , among other outlets. Her widely read newsletter, Letters from an American , synthesizes history and modern political issues.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In this muddled survey, Boston College historian Richardson (To Make Men Free) analyzes the history of the United States from its origins through the present day, reframing many of the nation's major internal conflicts as part of an ongoing clash between "liberal democracy" and emerging "authoritarianism." Richardson touches briefly on such events as the Civil War, the political fight over the New Deal, and the civil rights movement, arguing that these were moments when authoritarianism was thwarted by defenders of democracy who drew political strength from the liberal Enlightenment-era principles in the country's founding documents. But according to Richardson, from the 1950s onward authoritarianism has been on the rise (she cites McCarthyism and the Reagan administration as big steps in that direction), culminating with the election of Donald Trump. At one point, Richardson acknowledges that her argument amounts to a relabeling of "conservativism" as "authoritarianism": She explains that political opponents of the New Deal, who rallied behind a document called "The Conservative Manifesto" in the 1930s, were misappropriating the label "conservative" (which should only be fairly used, Richardson asserts, as a term for people who oppose something "radical"--which, the reader is left to assume, the New Deal wasn't), and thus all political conservatives since have also been mislabeled. Meanwhile, she never convincingly justifies the use of the term "authoritarianism" to refer to, for example, political opponents of civil rights for African Americans. Readers will be perplexed. (Sept.)