Heather Cox Richardson delivers a solid, historically based examination of America's contradictory approach to democracy. From the Founding Fathers, whose fine words about equality only pertained to White males, to today's gerrymandered system that puts people in office without a majority of votes, Democracy is endangered. Throughout our history, there have been two opposing views of what government should do: protect property (including enslaved people) and give business free rein or protect people.
I found as I read this book that though, as a faithful reader of Heather's "Letters from an American" I had already been aware of much, even most of the historical and current incidents she discusses, the piled-up effect of reading about one deplorable event after another--Dixiecrats, supply-side economics, CREEP, the botched election in Florida (hanging chads, anyone?) the Iraq War, Russian interference, the insane hold the former guy has on the GOP--one shameful thing after another, I had to put the book aside and read something like Agatha Christie--an escape to a nice fictional murder before continuing on with the real-life murderous attempts on our democracy.
It's the history of our democracy suffering death by a thousand cuts--or our democracy as the hapless frog in the pot of water that comes to a boil so slowly the frog doesn't realize he's being cooked.
Heather's clear and careful prose, backed by her encyclopedic grasp of American history, make for utterly compelling reading. It's nothing less than the struggle between right and wrong, between democracy and authoritarianism.
I wish everyone had had a history teacher like Heather,
There's a fine, detailed review in the Washington Post HERE
