I just bought all of historian Heather Cox Richardson’s books.

I’ve been reading her LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN (the free version) for a year. I love her grasp of history and writing style (she brings history alive!), so I figured it was high time I started supporting her. (Yeah. As an author myself, I know how crucial financial support is!)

 

These are links to her books at Amazon.

 

How the South Won the Civil War: https://amzn.to/3mDPOgY

 

Wounded Knee: Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre https://amzn.to/3iNIvSP

 

To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party https://amzn.to/3AqWCmT

 

West from Appomattox: The Reconstruction of America after the Civil War https://amzn.to/2Yu99c5

 

The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901 https://amzn.to/3BtlvzX

 

She is not a fan of the GOP, so don’t let that third title turn you off. (If you read the book descriptions at Amazon, you’ll get a better picture of what’s in her books.)

 

I’m supporting her because she is a national treasure. I have learned (or been helped to recall) more of our nation’s history — not the white-washed (and I do mean WHITE-washed) versions, but an actual version of what happened.

 

We’re far from a lily-white nation.  I started to uncover the dirt, big time, when I read Howard Zinn’s A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES many years ago.

 

I’m tired of the lies.  We can’t evolve or achieve our nation’s highest professed goals (liberty and justice for all, all humans are created equal) until we understand the entrenched racism, misogyny/sexism, and xenophobia that continues to keep us writhing in the ditch.

 

Far from being boring or unkind, Richardson simply tells it like it was (and is) in the way reminiscent of how Walter Cronkite would likely have reported the news: fact-based, with the chips falling where they may. “And that’s the way it is (was)…”  Remember the YOU ARE THERE series from the 1950’s, which we were shown in school? (DeForest Kelley was in a number of them!) Walter Cronkite was the reporter who introduced each episode.

 

If you’re too young to have been shown YOU ARE THERE episodes in school, it isn’t too late to watch them now!  De is in Surrender at Appomattox, Clara Barton, Spindletop, Gunfight at OK Corral, and the Search for (or the arrest of) John Wilkes Booth.  PLEASE NOTE: I’m not sure all of De’s episodes are in this version of the link I placed above. I bought them all separately years ago.  There were over 147 episodes produced. I only bought De’s episodes.

 

Get some samples from Richardson’s books (samples are free at Amazon) and see if her writing style resonates with you.  If it does, I highly recommend her books!