Professor of History, Boston College

Columnists

Why Isn’t Joe Manchin For the People?

Manchin appears to be blaming the person calling the fire department, rather than the arsonist, and then saying the firefighters need to work with the guys holding the gasoline cans and matches

June 8, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ Complaining that “the fundamental right to vote has itself become overtly politicized,” Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) published an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail yesterday saying that he would vote against S1, the For the People Act, arguing that protecting the right to vote should “never be done in a partisan ...

Columnists

Democrat-in-Chief

Why the ‘Battle for the Soul of the Nation’ is a fight for democracy Itself

June 1, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ On Memorial Day, President Joe Biden spoke at Arlington National Cemetery to remember those who gave the “last full measure of devotion” to the United States, dying in our service. His speech was a full-throated defense of the cause for which those soldiers gave their lives: democracy. “Democracy is more than ...

Columnists

Justice Moves Slowly–But It Moves

Will George Floyd’s murder lead to police reform–and can Donald Trump stay out of jail?

May 26, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ A year ago this week, 46-year-old George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis as then–police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. While bystanders begged Chauvin to get up, a teenage girl walking by had the presence of mind to video what was happening. Thanks ...

Columnists

Can Joe Biden Stay Above the Fray?

The President is quietly trying to rebuild the economy while Republicans tear each other apart

May 19, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ This week, President Joe Biden traveled to Dearborn, Michigan, to sell his $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan. Visiting Ford’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, he tested an electric version of the classic F-150 pickup and urged Americans to use the race to dominate the market in electric vehicles as a way ...

Politics

Cheney’s Last Stand

She may be exiting the GOP leadership, but she is joining a new Resistance

May 12, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ Tuesday night, in a speech that claimed every piece of the Republican landscape since 1980, Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney launched a broadside against the Republican leaders who have shackled the party to the former president. “Today we face a threat America has never seen before,” Cheney said. A former president who ...

History

A New Battleground for American History

How the classroom has been politicized

May 5, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ On Friday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and 36 Republicans sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona accusing him of trying to advance a “politicized and divisive agenda” in the teaching of American history. This is a full embrace of the latest Republican attempt to turn teaching history ...

Columnists

We Still Need to Understand the Insurrection

As disinformation continues to disrupt political life, a Congressional commission could reveal and disable the perpetrators

April 29, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ More than 140 military leaders, former national security officials, and elected officials from both parties have asked Congress to establish a commission to investigate what led to the January 6 insurrection, when rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol. The commission would also study how to prevent a similar coup attempt in ...

We Still Need to Understand the Insurrection

Democracy

Gun Violence Is as American as Apple Pie

But gun ownership only became popular after World War II, when conservatives united to prevent desegregation

April 21, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ America today is caught in a plague of gun violence. It wasn’t always this way. Americans used to own guns without engaging in daily massacres. Indeed, it always jumps out at me that the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929, when members of one Chicago gang set up and killed ...

Gun Violence Is as American as Apple Pie

Politics

Joe Biden Embraces Liberalism

But is he returning to a New Deal vision? Comparisons to Harry Truman may be more apt

April 15, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ Yesterday, the Biden administration issued a proclamation on Black Maternal Health Week. It noted that African American mothers die from pregnancy-related complications at two to three times the rates of white, Hispanic, Asian American, and Pacific Islander women, no matter what their income or education levels. President Joe Biden and ...

Politics

Is Corporate America Rebuking the Republican Party?

Georgia’s voting rights laws are forcing unlikely alliances between the Democrats and Big Business

April 6, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ The Republican outrage over Major League Baseball moving the All-Star game out of Georgia after the passage of the state’s new voter suppression law reveals a bigger crisis in American democracy: the mechanics of our current system do not reflect the will of the majority. Consumer-driven corporate America is increasingly throwing ...

Is Corporate America Rebuking the Republican Party?

Economy

Infrastructure Is the Gift That Keeps on Giving

But the GOP will oppose this important jobs bill and the taxes one billionaires that could redistribute wealth to millions of Americans

April 1, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ This week, President Joe Biden unveiled a new $2 trillion infrastructure proposal titled The American Jobs Plan. The statement introducing the plan notes that the United States currently ranks 13th in the world for the quality of our infrastructure, and that our public domestic investment as a share of the ...

Infrastructure Is the Gift That Keeps on Giving

Democracy

As Biden Reverses GOP Policies, SCOTUS May Stand In the Way

An all-out legal attack by Republican attorneys general will be warmly welcomed by Trump appointees

March 25, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ As the Biden administration sets out to restore a government that can regulate business to level the playing field in the United States between workers and employers, address inequality, and combat climate change, Republicans are turning to the courts to stop him. Republican attorneys general have already launched a number of lawsuits ...

Heather Cox Richardson

Why Isn’t Joe Manchin For the People?

Manchin appears to be blaming the person calling the fire department, rather than the arsonist, and then saying the firefighters need to work with the guys holding the gasoline cans and matches

Democrat-in-Chief

Why the ‘Battle for the Soul of the Nation’ is a fight for democracy Itself

Justice Moves Slowly–But It Moves

Will George Floyd’s murder lead to police reform–and can Donald Trump stay out of jail?

Can Joe Biden Stay Above the Fray?

The President is quietly trying to rebuild the economy while Republicans tear each other apart

Cheney’s Last Stand

She may be exiting the GOP leadership, but she is joining a new Resistance

A New Battleground for American History

How the classroom has been politicized

We Still Need to Understand the Insurrection

As disinformation continues to disrupt political life, a Congressional commission could reveal and disable the perpetrators

Gun Violence Is as American as Apple Pie

But gun ownership only became popular after World War II, when conservatives united to prevent desegregation

Joe Biden Embraces Liberalism

But is he returning to a New Deal vision? Comparisons to Harry Truman may be more apt

Is Corporate America Rebuking the Republican Party?

Georgia’s voting rights laws are forcing unlikely alliances between the Democrats and Big Business

Infrastructure Is the Gift That Keeps on Giving

But the GOP will oppose this important jobs bill and the taxes one billionaires that could redistribute wealth to millions of Americans

As Biden Reverses GOP Policies, SCOTUS May Stand In the Way

An all-out legal attack by Republican attorneys general will be warmly welcomed by Trump appointees

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