Author: Heather Cox Richardson

First Black female Justice: Ketanji Brown Jackson makes history after Senate confirmation to Supreme Court

First Black female Justice: Ketanji Brown Jackson makes history after Senate confirmation to Supreme Court

Posted by | Apr 12, 2022

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed to become Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on April 7. The Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s nominee by a vote of 53 to 47, with three Republicans joining all 50 Democrats in favor of confirmation. The three Republicans voting yes were Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Mitt Romney (R-UT). Jackson’s elevation will not change the legal philosophy of the court. She will replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who was one of the three justices still on the court who do not adhere to the concept of “originalism,” which argues that...

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Lessons from FDR: It turns out that authoritarian governments depend on the economies of democracies

Lessons from FDR: It turns out that authoritarian governments depend on the economies of democracies

Posted by | Apr 9, 2022

On June 5, 1944, the day before the D-Day operation in which the Allied forces in World War II invaded German-occupied western Europe, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his 29th Fireside Chat. Roosevelt told the American people that Rome had fallen to American and Allied troops the previous day. He used the talk not only to announce this important milestone in the deadly war, but also to remind Americans they were engaged in a war between democracy and fascism. And while fascists insisted their ideology made countries more efficient and able to serve their people, the Allies’ victory in...

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Cornerstone Speech: Why the Confederate ideology of Alexander Stephens remains with us today

Cornerstone Speech: Why the Confederate ideology of Alexander Stephens remains with us today

Posted by | Mar 25, 2022

March 21 was the anniversary of Georgia Senator Alexander Stephens’s Cornerstone Speech, given in 1861 just after he became the provisional vice president of the Confederacy. All these years later, the themes of that speech are still with us. Stephens spoke in Savannah, Georgia, to explain the difference between the United States and the fledgling Confederacy. That difference, he said, was slavery. The American Constitution was defective because it based the government on the principle that all men were created equal. Confederate leaders had corrected the Founding Fathers’ error by basing the Confederate government on the idea that some...

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Self-Inflicted Wounds: The damage we allow at home by applauding Tucker Carlson’s glorification of Putin

Self-Inflicted Wounds: The damage we allow at home by applauding Tucker Carlson’s glorification of Putin

Posted by | Mar 21, 2022

Russia continued its offensive against Ukraine on March 14, striking hard at civilians in Kyiv and Mariupol. The Russian army is gaining ground, but it appears to be sustaining massive losses of personnel and equipment which, in turn, is making leaders focus on grinding Ukraine into submission through sheer brutality. “The Congress remains unwavering in our commitment to supporting Ukraine as they face [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’s cruel and diabolical aggression, and to passing legislation to cripple and isolate the Russian economy as well as deliver humanitarian, security and economic assistance to Ukraine.” – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)...

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Do our voices matter? Historian Heather Cox Richardson’s interview with President Joe Biden

Do our voices matter? Historian Heather Cox Richardson’s interview with President Joe Biden

Posted by | Mar 19, 2022

Every day, people write to me and say they feel helpless to change the direction of our future. I always answer that we change the future by changing the way people think, and that we change the way people think by changing the way we talk about things. To that end, I have encouraged people to speak up about what they think is important, to take up oxygen that otherwise feeds the hatred and division that have had far too much influence in our country of late. Have any of your efforts mattered? Well, apparently some people think they...

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President of Ukraine invokes memory of 9/11 terror attacks in appeal for help from U.S. Congress

President of Ukraine invokes memory of 9/11 terror attacks in appeal for help from U.S. Congress

Posted by | Mar 18, 2022

Russia’s war on Ukraine has given us a penetrating snapshot of democracy and autocracy. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a joint session of Congress virtually on March 16. His speech was live streamed to the American people. Looking tired, he wore a green military tee shirt and was unshaven, sitting next to a large Ukrainian flag, a visual representation of his besieged country. Speaking from Kyiv, Zelensky emphasized that he and Ukrainians were fighting to be free, to preserve their democracy, and he reminded Americans of our own declared principles. “Russia has attacked not just us, not just our...

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